Identification notes
Lophozia excisa is very variable but in the field good examples are easy to recognise by a combination of low, creeping habitat, relatively broad, bilobed stem leaves, and clusters of red-purple or purple pigmented angular gemmae on young leaves.
It can be a confusing liverwort however, as it is usually fertile and the leaf-like bracts at the tops of the stem are often crowded, 2-4 lobed and look wavy, so rather unlike the true stem leaves below. Gemmae can also be surprisingly hard to find. In such cases, if you mount some young, sterile stems in water on a well slide and examine them carefully under high power, you will often find a few gemmae that are too small to be seen with a hand-lens.
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