Anthoceros

Anthoceros
Anthoceros agrestis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Anthocerotophyta
Class:Anthocerotopsida
Order:Anthocerotales
Family:Anthocerotaceae
Genus:Anthoceros
L.
Species

See text

Anthoceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Anthocerotaceae. The genus is global in its distribution. Its name means 'flower horn', and refers to the characteristic horn-shaped sporophytes that all hornworts produce.

Description

Species of Anthoceros are characterized by having a small to medium-sized, green thallus that is more or less lobed along the margins.[1] The spores are dark gray, dark brown or black, this is the easiest way to distinguish Anthoceros from the related genus Phaeoceros, which produces spores that are yellow.[1][2]

The sporophytes of Anthoceros are larger and much more complex than those of Riccia, Marchantia, and Pellia. It is differentiated into a foot, a constriction like intermediate zone and a capsule. There is no seta. It arises in clusters from the dorsal surface of the thallus each surrounded at the base a tubular involucre.

Anthoceros species are host to species of Nostoc, a symbiotic relationship in which Nostoc provides nitrogen to its host through cells known as heterocysts, and which are able to carry out photosynthesis.[3] The Nostoc colonies are present on the lower ventral surface and are visible as blue-green patches which open outwards by slime pores.

This hornwort grows in moist clay soils on hills, in ditches, and in damp hollows among rocks. The adult plant body is a gametophyte. The thallus is translucent and sub-orbicular in outline.

Species

Species include:[4]

  • Anthoceros agrestis
  • Anthoceros himalayensis
  • Anthoceros hispidus
  • Anthoceros lamellatus
  • Anthoceros neesii
  • Anthoceros punctatus
  • Anthoceros sambesianus
  • Anthoceros scariosus
  • Anthoceros tristanianus

References

  1. 1 2 Peng, Tao; Zhu, Rui-Liang (2013). "A revision of the genus Anthoceros (Anthocerotaceae, Anthocerotophyta) in China". Phytotaxa. 100 (1): 21–35. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.100.1.3. ISSN 1179-3163.
  2. ↑ Proskauer, Johannes (1951). "Studies on Athocerotales. III". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 78 (4): 331–349.
  3. ↑ Enderlin, C. S. and J. C. Meeks. (1983). Pure culture and reconstitution of the Anthoceros-Nostoc symbiotic association. Planta 158(2) 157-65.
  4. ↑ Ibarra-Morales, A., M. E. Muñíz, and S. Valencia. (2015). The genus Anthoceros (Anthocerotaceae, Anthocerotophyta) in Central Mexico. Phytotaxa [S.l.], v. 205, n. 4, p. 215–28.
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