Tropical Palm Trees In A Plant Pot III

I know this title is misleading, but that’s how I began this series so I guess I am stuck with it. From below the cotton wool fluffy skirts of the Common Liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha subsp ruderalis)  female archegonial heads have now appeared these little lemon coloured egg-shaped pods. They are the mature sporophytes, and they are packed with microscopic spores waiting for the right conditions to pop to ensure the future of the species.

I am at the extremes of my camera and macro lens in trying to show these mature sporophytes. I have had to crop these images to get closer, especially when you consider each yellow pod is around 0.5mm across. Notice in the image directly above how one of these pods have gone ‘pop’, leaving it in tatters, yet releasing a new future generation of plants via its release of spores.

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Please click on the images for a larger more detailed view.

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Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.

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