The oil bodies of liverworts, occasionally dubbed complex oil bodies for distinction, are unique organelles exclusive to the Marchantiophyta. They are markedly different from the oil bodies found in other land plants and algae in that they are membrane-bound, and not associated with food storage. The organelles are variable and present in an estimated 90% of liverwort species, often proving taxonomically relevant. As a whole, the formation and function of the organelles are poorly understood. Complex oil bodies are recognized as sites of isoprenoid biosynthesis and essential oil accumulation, and have been implicated with anti-herbivory, desiccation tolerance, and photo-protection.
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👉 Complex oil bodies in the context of Liverworts
Liverworts are a group of non-vascular land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (/mɑːrˌkæntiˈɒfətə, -oʊˈfaɪtə/ ). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information. The division name was derived from the genus name Marchantia, named after his father by French botanist Jean Marchant.
It is estimated that there are about 9000 species of liverwort. Some of the more familiar species grow as a flattened leafless thallus, but most species are leafy with a form very much like a flattened moss. Leafy species can be distinguished from the apparently similar mosses on the basis of a number of features, including their single-celled rhizoids. Leafy liverworts also differ from most (but not all) mosses in that their leaves never have a costa (present in many mosses) and may bear marginal cilia (very rare in mosses). Other differences are not universal for all mosses and liverworts, but the occurrence of leaves arranged in three ranks, the presence of deep lobes or segmented leaves, or a lack of clearly differentiated stem and leaves all point to the plant being a liverwort. Liverworts are distinguished from mosses in having unique complex oil bodies of high refractive index.