Marchantia

Figure 1. Aspects of Marchantia biology. (A) Vegetative haploid life form (thallus) in laboratory culture. (B) Female reproductive organs (archegoniophores) in the shape of palm trees growing from the haploid thallus of a female plant. (C) Male reproductive organs (antheridiophores) in the shape of umbrellas growing from the haploid thallus of a male plant. (D) Scanning electron micrograph of the surface of a thallus differentiating cup-shaped organs containing propagules (gemmae). Each gemma is able to produce a new plant asexually. (E) Confocal fl uorescence maximum projection image of cells surrounding a pore for gas exchange from a transgenic plant expressing a fl uorescent protein localized to the endoplasmic reticulum. Scale bars represent 2 cm (A), 5 mm (B and C), 1 mm (D) and 10 μm (E). Photographs by Shohei Yamaoka (A–C), Eduardo Flores-Sandoval (D), and Ryuichi Nishihama (E). Marchantia