Fossombronia pusilla, Dalgety Bay, Fife

Been a while since I posted anything to here but since I just came across one of my favourite liverworts I feel like I should.

NT19 Fossombronia pusilla

New to the square, though probably present in every square in the county, this liverwort needs microscopic determination with spores. I picked this one up from a field margin and had to grow it a bit to get mature capsules. Fortunately they are pretty responsive to such treatment and mostly have abundant capsules.

Fossombronia pusilla!!!

A plant I've been looking forward to seeing. Finding it myself is a bonus, as often nice plants emerge from group outings. The third record that I can discern from Fife and there aren't enormous numbers of records from Scotland it would seem. In Fife it is known from the area around Star Moss (NO306035) and just south of Thornton (NT285959). All three Fife records on NBN are from 2004.

Distribution from NBN

Pictures

Habit

Habit 2 - sporophyte emerging

Purple rhizoids

Broken sporophyte

Spores

Spores and elater