Specimen image via iDigBio · BY
Megaceros
Sign in to saveMegaceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Dendrocerotaceae. The genus is found in the Old World tropics of east Asia and Australia. Its name means 'big horn', and refers both to the exceptionally large size of the gametophyte thallus and to the large, horn-shaped sporophyte that the plants produce. Many species have a branching thallus that is more than two centimeters wide. The gametophytes are monoicous.
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 226
- With media
- 108
- Family
- Dendrocerotaceae
- Collections
- F, NY, US, IPA/SP, YPM, CINC
- Recorded in
- Venezuela, Costa Rica, Japan, Brasil, Ireland, Jamaica, United States, Chile
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Dendrocerotaceae
Show 3 more facts
- taxon name
- Megaceros
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon common name
- 大角苔属
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- References
- External links
Megaceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Dendrocerotaceae. The genus is found in the Old World tropics of east Asia and Australia. Its name means 'big horn', and refers both to the exceptionally large size of the gametophyte thallus and to the large, horn-shaped sporophyte that the plants produce. Many species have a branching thallus that is more than two centimeters wide. The gametophytes are monoicous.
The genus Megaceros is unusual among hornworts in that the sporophyte does not have stomata, and the spores are green because they contain chloroplasts, as does the related genus Dendroceros. They can have as many as 14 chloroplasts per cell, the highest known number in hornworts. The elaters are helical.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Megaceros” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.