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Umbrella liverwort is the flat, glossy green plant that carpets damp nursery pots, greenhouse benches, and shady paths, and it sends up tiny umbrella-shaped stalks when it reproduces. It grows on every continent except Antarctica and is a well-known weed for American growers. It is also called common liverwort.

Appearance

Appearance
Has no true leaves, stems, or roots. The body is a flat, forking ribbon up to about 4 in (10 cm) long and ¾ in (2 cm) wide, usually green but browner or purplish with age, held down by hairlike .

Look-alikes

crescent cup liverwortLunularia cruciata

Look at the gemma cups: they are half-moon shaped on crescent cup liverwort and fully round on umbrella liverwort.

Why they get mixed upBoth form flat green mats in nurseries and gardens.

snakeskin liverwortConocephalum salebrosum

Snakeskin liverwort has no gemma cups, a bolder snakeskin-like net of pores, edges that curve down instead of up, and a spicy smell when scratched. Its female stalks end in small cone-shaped caps, not finger-rayed umbrellas.

Why they get mixed upBoth are large, flat liverworts on damp, shady soil, though snakeskin prefers creek banks and wet rocks over gardens and greenhouses.

Where it lives

Typical habitats
  • Greenhouses and nurseries
  • Gardens and paths
  • Stream banks
  • Burned ground
Range
Found nearly worldwide in temperate and tropical regions. In Florida it grows year-round, especially in cool, shaded, climate-controlled growing areas.
Preferred conditions
Thrives with constant moisture, high humidity, shade, and rich soil; extra nitrogen and phosphorus speed its growth. It often turns up on recently burned ground. After wildfires in Minnesota and New Jersey, it covered the burned soil for a few years before other plants took over.

Life cycle

Reproduction
Male and female plants are separate. Females raise stalked, finger-rayed "umbrellas"; males raise flatter, disc-topped stalks.

Growing it

Propagation
Round gemma cups on the upper surface hold tiny buds called . Splashing water throws them out, and each grows into a new plant.

Name and classification

About the name
The species is split into three subspecies. The widespread weedy one is subsp. ruderalis (common liverwort); the others are star-headed liverwort (subsp. polymorpha) and mountain liverwort (subsp. montivagans).

Conservation

IUCN Red List
NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Threats
In nurseries, thick mats can keep water and fertilizer from reaching container plants' roots. Any bits left behind after hand-weeding can regrow.

Culture and stories

Culture and stories
  • Its lobed, liver-like shape once led healers to use it for liver ailments, an idea from the old "doctrine of signatures."
  • It tolerates high levels of lead and other heavy metals in soil, and the USDA has studied it for restoring disturbed sites.

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Umbrella Liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha) — identification, habitat & look-alikes | Moeyo