Largest liverwort

The largest species of liverwort is Schistochila appendiculata, native to New Zealand. Growing in lowland forests, it can attain a maximum length of 1.1 m, a diameter of up to 2.6 cm, and a stem length of up to 10 cm. It occurs on all three of the principal islands of New Zealand – North Island, South Island and Stewart Island (located between the previous two).

Liverworts are typically very small non-vascular plants (rarely more than 10 cm long), are often overlooked, and superficially resemble mosses, but they constitute an entirely separate taxonomic group known scientifically as the marchantiophytes.

They are characterized by possessing either a flattened ribbon-like or branching body structure known as a thallus (these are thallose liverworts), or a series of flattened stems and scale-like leaves (these are scale or leafy liverworts).