Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Liverworts

These are very interesting little plants. Possibly the most primitive multicellular plant in our flora these flat, two-dimensional organisms clinging to wet rocks are dead-ringers for some of the first plants to appear on land roughly four hundred million years ago. Lacking leaves, roots, stems or much of anything else these small plants help break down rocks by secreting acids from their undersides. As one of the first species to appear on recently cleared land these little green wonders prevent erosion and once over-topped by larger, more complex plants break down and return their bodies to the soil enriching the ground and paving the way for the more complicated communities that follow.

Liverworts acquired their common name from the fact that they resembled - what else? - livers and were thought - based on the Doctrine of Signatures theory - to benefit humans afflicted with liver disorders. Unfortunately they don't do a thing for human livers - or any other part of the human anatomy - but they do go a long way toward discrediting the Doctrine of Signatures.

And by the way, anytime you run into a plant whose common name ends in "wort" you can bet that at one time it was used medicinally (wort = medicine in middle English).

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