Guide to Liverworts of Oregon: Key to Genera 6
1b plants leafy > 3b leaves not divided, not ciliate > 6
(Scapania undulata, Lane Co., Oregon. DHW 7626)
Choose this lead to avoid, or at least delay, making a slide mount. All genera can be keyed out using a dissecting microscope. However, note that many liverworts with solitary oil bodies have oil bodies that persist for some time after drying. At this step in keying it is always a good idea to mount a leaf, or whole shoot if the plant is small, on a slide and examine it under a compound microscope.
6a Oil bodies 2 or more per cell, or specimen dried.
(Couplet 7)
(Left: Cephalozia lunulifolia, N. Myrtle Creek, Douglas Co., Oregon. DHW 8709. Right: Radula complanata, Holton Creek, Jackson Co., Oregon. DHW 7537.)
Note comments above. Although solitary oil bodies may be detected in dried material, only fresh, living--not merely rehydrated--material should be used to conclude that oil bodies are absent. The only common genus in our region that lacks oil bodies is Cephalozia.
6b Oil bodies absent or solitary (1 per median leaf cell) in fresh, living material.
(Couplet 13)
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