What is Bryology / a Bryologist?

Bryology is the study of mosses, liverworts, and hornworts (otherwise known collectively as Bryophytes).

Bryophytes are green land plants; there are approximately 15,000 species (9000 mosses, 5-6000 liverworts).

(The following text was adapted from Johnson, et al., 1995. Plants of the Western Boreal Forest & Aspen Parkland.)

Brachythecium rutabulum

Most plants that people tend to think of are vascular (they contain internal tubes for transporting food and water within them) such as most house plants, flowering plants, etc. Bryophytes have poorly developed tubes - they are non-vascular plants. And, instead of reproducing with seeds, bryophytes reproduce using spores

Bryum cryophyllum - Northwest Territories, Canada	Because of the way bryophytes transport food and water, and because they require water for reproduction, bryophytes are small plants, and are most often abundant in wet places. However, many are quite drought tolerant and occur on trunks of trees, in forest canopies, and on dry rock surfaces.
Mooses on dry rocks (Rhön Mountains, Germany) (Racomitrium lanuginosum, R. heterostichum, R. microcarpum, Andreaea rupestris and others)

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Mosses

Holomitrium crispulum - Amboró, Ecuador  Tayloria mirabils - Tierra del Fuego, Argentina  Sphagnum fuscum and S. capillifolium; Rhön Mountains, Germany

Moss stems may be branched and have green leaves that are usually one cell thick. Often there is a bundle of cells (costa) present. Moss leaves vary greatly in appearance, (including shiny, dull; red, green, or yellow), when they are moist or dry, and often change in orientation.

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Liverworts

Conocephalum conicum  Metzgeria furcata  Tritomaria quinquedentata	Most liverworts are leafy (like mosses) but a few are thalloid (composed of a flattened body - the thallus - that is not differentiated into stem and leaves). Leafy liverworts have 2 or 3 rows of leaves on their stems. The leaves never have a costa and often they are rounded or have 2-4 points at their tips, and are folded. If present, the leaves on the underside of the stem (the underleaves) are often reduced and usually pressed flat to the stem. Because the underleaves are reduced or absent, the larger stem leaves have a flattened appeareance, an arrangement that is rare in mosses.
Hornworts
Anthoceros peruvianus, Misiones, Argentina	Hornworts are thalloid and have linear "horn-like" capsules that split into two valves when mature. The cells of the thallus usually have only one chloroplast per cell - a condition not found in mosses or liverworts.

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