Glossary Details – French Guianan E-Flora Project

Glossary Details:

Title: Life cycle of a liverwort. Drawing by M. Sashital.

Description: Alternation of generations of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. The conspicuous, green, dichotomously-branched structure represents the gametophyte generation which is everything between the spore and the embryo in this illustration whereas the sporophyte is located under the lobed structure seen on the female gametophyte plant and can not be seen without looking under the lobes.

Term:

Liverwort life cycle

Definition:

Referring to the alternation of generations between the gameophyte (haploid) and sporophyte (diploid) stages of a liverwort. The most conspicuous stage of the life cycle is the gametophyte generation whereas the sportophyte generation is small and inconspicuous.