carnivorous liverworts?

From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Date: Tue Feb 18 1997 - 08:38:27 PST


Date:          Tue, 18 Feb 1997 08:38:27 
From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg633$foo@default>
Subject:       carnivorous liverworts?

Dear fellow cpers,

> There is an article by Paul Simons in the British CP Society
> Journal, dated Spring 1980, which explains the carnivorous (rotifer
> eating) habit of the Leafy Liverworts, Colura and Pleurozia, both
> tropical genera.

This is of course nonsense. None of these is really carnivorous.
Already Lloyd (Carnivorous Plants: 3, 1942) wrote (discussing the
liverwort genera _Frullania_, _Lejeunea_, _Colura_, and _Pleurozia_
- under the synonym _Physiotium_): "There is no evidence that these
arrangements in the liverworts indicate a carnivorous habit, though
they are inhabited, like any liverwort or moss, by protozoa,
nematodes, etc. That they are water holders is evident."

Kind regards
Jan



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