Lejeuneaceae

Taxobox
name = Lejeuneaceae


image_width = 240px
image_caption = leaf cells of "Leucolejeunea xanthocarpa", showing oil bodies
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Marchantiophyta
classis = Jungermanniopsida
ordo = Jungermanniales
familia = Lejeuneaceae
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = See text.

Lejeuneaceae is the largest family of liverworts. It is also considered as the most evolved one, since most of its members are epiphytes, which means the grow mainly upon tree trunks.

Most of the species of this family are tropical, yet they can also be found in temperate regions.

The main characteristics of the family:

#The leaves are incubous.
#Amphigastrium is usually present,sometimes reduced.
#Leaves are divided into lobe and lobule.
#Archaegonium in a perianth.

Some large genera of the family are: "Lejeunea", "Ceratolejeunea" and "Cheilolejeunea".

Taxonomy

The Lejeuneaceae are the largest family of liverworts with more than 1600 species, [cite book | last=Schuster | first=Rudolf M. | year=1980 | title=The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America | edition=volume IV | pages=708 | publisher=Columbia University Press | location=New York | isbn=0-231-04608-1 ] which equates to roughly 20 to 25% of all liverworts. These species are assigned to 94 genera. [Crandall-Stotler, Barbara. & Stotler, Raymond E. "Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta". pages 62-63 "in" A. Jonathan Shaw & Bernard Goffinet (Eds.), "Bryophyte Biology". (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press:2000). ISBN 0-521-66097-1]

List of genera

References