Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts


Bryophyte is the collective name for the mosses, liverworts and hornworts. Bryophytes are spore-producing, rather than seed-producing, plants and they are all without flowers.

While there are marked differences between mosses, liverworts and hornworts, they are related closely enough to warrant a single term that includes all three. Bryophytes vary in size from plants only slightly over a millimetre tall to trailing species which grow to strands well over a metre long. Although they are often found in rainforests they can be found in a variety of habitats including arid and alpine areas. They occur most abundantly in relatively unpolluted areas. They can also be found growing on a variety of surfaces (or substrates) ranging from soil, rock, tree trunks, leaves, rotting wood, bones, to old discarded shoes or gloves. Bryophytes don’t have true roots. They have root-like anchoring structures called rhizoids but these do not actively extract minerals and water from the substrate.

You can read more about Bryophytes here: https://www.cpbr.gov.au/bryophyte/


Mosses, Liverworts & Hornworts

Announcements

Yesterday

Hello NatureMaprs!Three new priority species lists of exotic freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates, and vertebrates in the ACT have been added to NatureMapr. Uploading records of these species to N...


Continue reading

NatureMapr now receives more records in NSW than ACT

NatureMapr Data Collector 6.2.1 update

Critical nature positive infrastructure update

IMPORTANT NatureMapr Data Collector 6.2.0 mobile app update

Discussion

JaneR wrote:
8 min ago
This is same photo as 4653837

Dawsonia (genus)
Tapirlord wrote:
1 hr ago
Bryophyte

Polytrichaceae sp. (family)
Tapirlord wrote:
1 hr ago
Bryophyte

Dawsonia (genus)
Darcy wrote:
13 Mar 2025
G'day @Brouhaha you need to fix the GPS location of this sighting.

Unidentified Moss, Liverwort or Hornwort
plants wrote:
6 Mar 2025
A moss.

Bryaceae (family)
803,133 sightings of 21,770 species from 13,572 contributors
CCA 3.0 | privacy
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.