Liver spots

We took the wooded walk down the damp valley to the waterfall and the bay below. A stream  runs down below the path and the moist micro-climate along the ravine hosts a profusion of liverwort, luxuriant at this time of the year. Perhaps luxuriant is not the right word because it grows flat against the ground in shiny overlapping flaps - hence its name: resembling the lobed structure of liver it was once deemed a curative for diseases of that organ. 

Liverworts are not mosses or lichen or ferns or fungi or algae. They are of themselves, a primitive form of plant that reproduces by means of spores not seeds. They are unobtrusive and easily overlooked. I find them intriguing and I especially like the dotted effect produced by the leaf pores.


I also spotted this jolly fellow (extra).