The Plant List — A working list for all plant species

⚠ Version 1.1 of The Plant List has been superseded and should no longer be used.

The new version is available at http://www.worldfloraonline.org. The new version is enhanced, using more data sources including Taxonomic Expert Networks and will be more frequently updated.

The Bryophytes (Mosses and liverworts)

Symphyogyna brongniartii Mont.

Bryophytes are small, non-vascular plants, such as mosses, liverworts and hornworts. They play a vital role in regulating ecosystems because they provide an important buffer system for other plants, which live alongside and benefit from the water and nutrients that bryophytes collect.

Some bryophyte species are amongst the first to colonise open ground. Bryophytes are also very good indicators of habitat quality as many plant species in this group are sensitive to levels of moisture in the atmosphere, which are lower in disturbed habitats because there is less shade.

Bryophytes do not have seeds or flowers. Instead they reproduce via spores.

There are around 20,000 species of Bryophytes.

You can also browse genera found in Bryophytes.

View statistics at the bottom of the page.

Families in Bryophytes

Statistics

Species of Bryophytes contained within The Plant List belong to 177 plant families and 1,822 plant genera.

The Plant List includes 60,805 scientific plant names of species rank for the Bryophytes. Of these 34,556 are accepted species names.

The Plant List includes a further 7,807 scientific plant names of infraspecific rank for the Bryophytes. We do not intend The Plant List to be complete for names of infraspecific rank. These are primarily included because names of species rank are synonyms of accepted infraspecific names.

Species names

The status of the 60,805 species names for the Bryophytes recorded in The Plant List, are as follows:

Pie chart of binomial name statuses
Status Total
◕ Accepted 34,556 56.8%
◕ Synonym 22,419 36.9%
◕ Unplaced 0 0%
◕ Unassessed 3,830 6.3%

All names

The status of the 68,612 names (including infraspecific names) for the Bryophytes recorded in The Plant List, are as follows:

Pie chart of all name statuses
Status Total
◕ Accepted 36,808 53.6%
◕ Synonym 27,320 39.8%
◕ Unplaced 0 0%
◕ Unassessed 4,484 6.5%

The confidence with which the status of the 60,805 species names recorded in The Plant List for the Bryophytes, are assigned as follows:

Confidence level Accepted Synonym Unplaced Unassessed Total
High confidence 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Medium confidence 34,547 22,387 0 0 56,934 93.6%
Low confidence 9 32 0 3,830 3,871 6.4%

The source of the species name records found in The Plant List for the Bryophytes is as follows:

Source of record Accepted Synonym Unplaced Unassessed Misapplied Total
TICA 0 0 0 72 0 72 0.1%
Tropicos 34,556 22,419 0 3,730 0 60,705 99.8%
WCSP (in review) 0 0 0 28 0 28 0.0%