Guide to Liverworts of Oregon: Schistochilopsis incisa (Schrader) Konstantinova
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Lophozia 1a oil bodies more than 15 per cell > Lophozia 2b underleaves absent > Lophozia 3b gemmae angular > Lophozia 4a leaf base mostly 1 stratose > Lophozia incisa
Synonym: Lophozia incisa (Schrad.) Dum.
Special Status: None.
Recognition: A fleshy plant that wilts upon the slightest drying out. The stem is flattened and relatively large in relation to the leaves compared to other species in the genus. The leaves are usually three lobed but small plants have most leaves with only two lobes. The lobing can be obscured because the leaf margins are dentate. Angular, green gemmae are frequent. The color is usually whitish but in shady, damp places the color may be dark green.
Distribution: Grows on rotten wood, occasionally on other peaty, organic substrate, in moist forests throughout the state. Lophozia incisa is quite abundant at low elevations.
Comments: This species is very similar to Lophozia opacifolia and some authors have doubted a species level distinctness. My experience has been that they are separable ecologically as well as morphologically so I support their retention as species. Lophozia incisa is a species characteristic of large rotting logs in low to middle elevation forests. Lophozia opacifolia is restricted to the subalpine zone, where it is abundant in open forests, under shrubs, and on the banks of rivulets in meadows.
In both Sotler and Crandall-Stotler (2017) and the provisional treatment of the Bryophyte Flora of North America this species is treated as Schistochilopsis incisa and L. opacifolia is treated as a subspecies. I find it pretty easy to distinguish L. opacifolia so I recognize it as distinct in this work.
Lophozia incisa - Blue River, Lane Co., Oregon. Photo by H. Dawson.
Lophozia incisa - Blue River, Lane Co., Oregon. Photo by H. Dawson.
Lophozia incisa - Blue River, Lane Co., Oregon. Photo by H. Dawson.
Lophozia incisa - Butte Creek Falls, Linn Co., Oregon. DHW m1850.