Bryophytes include mosses, liverworts and hornworts, which collectively form green to brown carpets, tufts and draperies on rocks, trees, soil and wood within the Black Hills. Many people confuse bryophytes with lichens but the easiest way to tell them apart is to ask yourself "Does it look like a tiny plant, with discernable leaves and shoots?". If the answer is yes, you may have a bryophyte and not a lichen. However, lichens and bryophytes often grow together and thus are often studied together. The difference between mosses and liverworts can be subtle but a gestalt search image develops after a little effort trying to tell them apart. In general, mosses a larger, more developed and complex in morphology (eg. leaf cell differentiation, central leaf midrib, etc..). Liverworts tend to be smaller, lack a leaf midrib and can have a flattened or 3-ranked leaf arrangement (although one set of leaves is often very vestigial).

Bryophytes are one of the poorest documented groups of vegetation in the Black Hills. A smattering of papers focused on bryophyte flora of the Hills but no cohesive flora, guide or paper has summarized what is known about the mosses and liverworts of the area. This project seeks to document the distribution and diversity of mosses and liverworts.

Important things to note when observing bryophytes include the substrate (wood, mineral or organic soil, rock type, etc..) and meso and microsite characteristics (moisture level of area, elevation, aspect, etc..). Many bryophytes can be male or female, although some have both reproductive parts on the same plant. Noting or photographing reproductive parts can be helpful for on-line ID. In reality, many species need to be collected and identified using microscopic methods. Don't let that stop you from photographing and uploading to the project though. Many genera are easily identified from a photograph and by process of elimination with adequate site and substrate information, a good guess can be made as to which species is shown in a picture.

Logo for this project provided by Mary Zimmerman (http://www.greeninkgalleryandstudios.com/Mary's_Art.htm) less ↑