Guide to Liverworts of Oregon: Lophozia ventricosa (Dicks.) Dum. var. ventricosa
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Lophozia 1b oil bodies less than 12 per cell > Lophozia 5b leaves bilobed > Lophozia 8b underleaves absent > Lophozia 12b dioicous > Lophozia 14a gemmae greenish > Lophozia 16b shoots mostly prostrate > Lophozia 17a perianth mouth dentate > Lophozia ventricosa
Synonym: None.
Special Status: None.
Recognition: This species is the most unspecialized Lophozia, with bilobed leaves, abundant gemmae, and numerous oil bodies. The closest look alike is L. ventricosa var. longiflora, which usually differs in having few gemmae and a ciliate perianth mouth, neither character being consistently reliable. The best differentiating character is 10-15 oil bodies in var. ventricosa vs. only 5-10 in var. longiflora. Although var. longiflora usually, but not always, has bulging trigones, this may occasionally be seen in var. ventricosa and is not a good distinguishing character.
Distribution: On wood or well-decayed organic material, also on rock and compact soil. Found throughout the state in moist forest zones at all elevations.
Comments: This is the most common species of Lophozia in the state. At higher elevations it is often replaced by L. sudetica. Not yet found in Oregon, but to be looked for, is L. wenzelii. It is similar to L. ventricosa but has leaves with incurved margins so they look trough like.
The taxonomy of these forms has a complicated and confusing history. Three species names have been used in sometimes contradictory ways in different references. Bakalin (2011aa) places these in three separate species in his treatment for Flora of North America. Extensive study of multiple populations reveals the wide variation described by Paton (1999). As treated here, with two varieties of Lophozia ventricosa, I am provisionally accepting the recommendation in The Synopsis of Liverworts of North American Liverworts (Stotler and Crandall-Stotler, 2017). They mention, however, that unpublished data suggest all previously recognized taxa are conspecific. This appears to be the case in Oregon.
Lophozia ventricosa - Male shoot. Butte Creek Falls, Linn Co., Oregon. DHW m1853a.
Lophozia ventricosa - Perianth mouth, Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. DHW m2766n.
Lophozia ventricosa - Perianth mouth, Russian Wilderness, Siskiyou County, California. Shevock 57452.
Lophozia ventricosa - Perianth mouth, Thielson Creek, Douglas County, Oregon. DHW m2540a.
Lophozia ventricosa - Horseshoe Lake, Marion Co., Oregon. DHW m2896.
Lophozia ventricosa - Horseshoe Lake, Marion Co., Oregon. DHW m2896.
Lophozia ventricosa. Butte Creek Falls, Linn Co., Oregon. DHW m1853a.
Lophozia ventricosa - Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. DHW m2766n.
Lophozia ventricosa - Horseshoe Lake, Marion Co., Oregon. DHW m2896.
Lophozia ventricosa - Horseshoe Lake, Marion Co., Oregon. DHW m2896.
Lophozia ventricosa - Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. DHW m2766n.
Lophozia ventricosa - Horseshoe Lake, Marion Co., Oregon. DHW m2896.
Lophozia ventricosa - Horseshoe Lake, Marion Co., Oregon. DHW m2896.
Lophozia ventricosa. Butte Creek Falls, Linn Co., Oregon. DHW m1853a.
Prairie Peak, Linn (Lane?) Co., Oregon. DHW ????.