An illustrated talk by Dr Morteza DJAMALI on the hidden diversity of liverworts, primitive plants inhabiting ephemeral wetlands

Discovering the hidden part of plant biodiversity in drylands; the case  of the liverwort family of Riellaceae. An illustrated talk by Dr Morteza DJAMALI from CNRS, France.

This will be on the fourth Thursday of October (not the usual third), 24th of October.  Usual time, 19h00. NBRI lecture room.

Abstract: New plant taxa are continuously discovered worldwide at the species, genus, and family levels.  Liverworts are descendants of some of the first plants to move from water onto land. They are very simple, tiny plants, generally restricted to wetter environments.  Here, we present an example of one of the least-known liverwort families, the Riellaceae, which is native to semi-arid and Mediterranean bioclimatic regions of the world, characterised by a marked seasonal rainfall regime. Almost all species  are part of the ‘hidden biodiversity’ in that they grow and expand rapidly within specific wetland environments in arid and semi-arid regions. Only the search for their spores buried in sediments and their cultivation in laboratory greenhouses can help unravel their presence in many seasonal wetlands. However, such seasonal wetlands are threatened in many parts of the world due to both global climate change and anthropogenic activities. Scientists believe that many Riellaceae species have yet to be discovered. With one recorded species already identified, Namibia, characterised by its arid climate and numerous ephemeral and seasonal wetlands, is one of the potential countries harbouring multiple species of  Riellaceae.