The Plant List — A working list for all plant species

⚠ Version 1 of The Plant List has been superseded.

You should refer instead to the current version of The Plant List.

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 165 plant families and 1,473 plant genera.

The Plant List includes 71,614 scientific plant names of species rank for the Bryophytes. Of these 15,344 are accepted species names.

The Plant List includes a further 13,194 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 71,614 species names for the Bryophytes recorded in The Plant List, are as follows:

Status Total
◕ Accepted 15,344 21.4%
◕ Synonym 36,162 50.5%
◕ Unplaced 0 0%
◕ Unassessed 20,108 28.1%

All names

The status of the 84,808 names (including infraspecific names) for the Bryophytes recorded in The Plant List, are as follows:

Status Total
◕ Accepted 18,614 21.9%
◕ Synonym 44,411 52.4%
◕ Unplaced 0 0%
◕ Unassessed 21,783 25.7%

The confidence with which the status of the 71,614 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 15,307 35,902 0 0 51,209 71.5%
Low confidence 37 260 0 20,108 20,405 28.5%

The source of the species name record found in The Plant List for the Bryophytes, are as follows:

Source of record Accepted Synonym Unplaced Unassessed Misapplied Total
Tropicos 15,344 36,162 0 20,108 0 71,614 100%