Scientific Name: Marchantiophyta (also known as Hepatophyta)
Status: Extant (alive today)
Oldest fossil anywhere: Devonian of New York (about 390 million years old)
Oklahoma fossil record: There are no reported macrofossils of liverworts from Oklahoma. Liverworts are small plants that live in damp habitats. Liverworts, like hornworts and mosses, do not have seeds, roots or vascular tissue. Some have simple leaves, others have only wide, flat stems. Liverworts use spores to reproduce.
Liverworts are rarely more than 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) tall.
Liverworts are land plants, but based on DNA evidence, are considered to be the most distant relative of all other land plants.
