Borovichev E.A. Botanical excursion on the Northern Soroya. Hammerfest, 2014.

B ryophy tes of Nor thern So roya Bryophytes are major groups o f green non- vascular land plants. They have a gametophyte- dominant life cycle, in which cells o f the plant carry only a single set o f genetic information. Following modern systematic o f plants, hepatics (or liverworts), mosses and hornworts are separate groups within the Plant Kingdom. Mosses are plants that possess both stems and leaves. The leaves normally have a nerve or midrib and usually are spirally arranged round the stems. Mosses do not have roots like those o f higher plants but instead have root-like threads or rhizoids that attach the plant to the substratum. There are about 14000 species o f moss worldwide. Liverworts count about 5000 - 6000 species which are distributed from tropics to the Arctic. The name “hepatic” comes from the Latin-name for liver h e p a tic , and refers to the thallose form, which was thought to resemble a liver or perhaps to be a cure for liver ailments. This led to the more common English name, liverwort, literally «liver plant». Liverworts are cousins o f mosses and are sometimes mistaken for them (or in their thallose forms for lichens). In general, liverworts tend to prefer moister Bucklandiella microcarpa grows on acidic rocks, boulders and cliffs, as well as on soil or gravel. It is oftenfound in snow-beds communities, mostly in exposed, dry or moist sites on the Soroya habitats than mosses (though some can grow in quite dry places) and are less common, at least in Soroya Islands. Liverworts come in two very distinctive forms - leafy and thalloid. Leafy liverworts are clearly leafy, and look very much like mosses. Thalloid liverworts, on the other hand, do not look like mosses. Leafy liverworts outnumber the thallose liverworts in nature, but some guide-books mostly focus on the biology o f thallose liverworts. Moreover, most books use Fringe-moss or Heath Grey Moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum) is widely distributed. It prefers acidic or occasionally calciferous soil and rocks, boulders and polar tundra. In the island it usually grows on dry, exposed, open areas. This is due to the very long hyaline awns that at once separate itfrom all other allied species - it often has a hoary appearance due to their long, hair-pointed leaves Marchantia polymorpha is polymorphic species and consists o f three subspesies - M. p. montivagans, M. p. polymorpha and M. p. ruderalis. First on these is one o f the largest thallose liverworts, which grows on base-rich wet rocks, sometimes nearby streams. ThaiIi are pale or yellowish-green when young, but become brown or purplish when old. On the picture it is together with Spiral Apple-moss (Philonotis seriata) 80