• 17 parts
  • Checked October 2026

Marchantia Antheridiophore Labeled

The male and female branches of a liverwort cut down the middle, then the flat plant they grow from.

Marchantia Antheridiophore Labeled

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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Disc
  2. Antheridium
  3. Stalk
  4. Rays
  5. Archegonium
  6. Capsule
  7. Seta
  8. Foot
  9. Elaters
  10. Thallus
  11. Gemma cup
  12. Gemmae
  13. Antheridiophore
  14. Archegoniophore
  15. Rhizoids
  16. Air pores
  17. Scales

Drawn for this site on 2026-10-03 from plain geometry. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

Next step Next: a moss, the liverwort's leafy cousin

All 17 parts on the diagram

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Antheridiophore 3

  1. Disc The flat lobed top of the antheridiophore. The antheridia sit in it.
  2. Antheridium The organ that makes sperm. Each sits in its own chamber.
  3. Stalk An upright branch of the thallus. It lifts the disc into the air.

Archegoniophore and sporophyte 6

  1. Rays Finger-like arms of the head. The archegonia hang between them.
  2. Archegonium The flask-shaped organ that holds one egg.
  3. Capsule The spore case. It splits at the tip to shed its spores.
  4. Seta The short stem of the sporophyte. It carries the capsule.
  5. Foot The base of the sporophyte. It anchors in the parent plant and takes in food.
  6. Elaters Coiled threads that form among the spores and help scatter them.

The plant 8

  1. Thallus The flat, forked body of the plant.
  2. Gemma cup A small cup on the upper face. It holds the gemmae.
  3. Gemmae Small discs of tissue. Each can grow into a new plant.
  4. Antheridiophore The male branch: a stalk topped by a flat lobed disc.
  5. Archegoniophore The female branch: a stalk topped by drooping rays.
  6. Rhizoids Root-like hairs under the thallus. They hold the plant to the soil.
  7. Air pores Small openings in the upper face of the thallus.
  8. Scales Thin flaps on the underside of the thallus.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-10-03 and kept only where two of these use it. (1) E. Strasburger and others, A Text-Book of Botany, second English edition, 1903, the Hepaticae (public domain), https://archive.org/details/textbookofbotany00stra_1 : Marchantia polymorpha forms a flat, lobed, dichotomously branched thallus; unicellular rhizoids and ventral scales on the under side; each area of the upper surface is perforated by an air-pore leading into an air-chamber; cupules on the upper surface contain gemmae, by which the plant multiplies; the plant is dioecious; the male branches end in lobed discs that bear the antheridia in flask-shaped depressions, each with a narrow canal; the female branches end in a rayed disc and the archegonia hang between the rays; the stalked sporogonium with its foot and capsule; spores and elaters, spirally thickened cells that serve to scatter the spores; figures 320 and 321 name the antheridiophores and archegoniophores. (2) Wikipedia, text only, Marchantia, Marchantia polymorpha, Liverwort, Elater and Gemma, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchantia , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchantia_polymorpha , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchantiophyta , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elater : a thallus with an upper epidermis with pores; gemma cups containing gemmae, splashed out by rain; scales and rhizoids on the ventral surface; antheridiophores and archegoniophores on separate plants; archegoniophores are a stalk with star-like rays; a flat disc holding the antheridia tops each antheridiophore; the sporophyte has a foot, a seta and a capsule; elaters are spring-like cells among the spores, with helical thickenings. (3) C. S. Gager, Fundamentals of Botany, 1916, the liverworts (public domain), https://archive.org/details/fundamentalsofbo00gagerich : thallus and rhizoids; cupules with gemmae; foot, seta and capsule of a sporogonium; elaters among the spores. Gager describes other liverworts, so the two umbrella-like branches stand on (1) and (2). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-03 from plain geometry; own work, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A Marchantia antheridiophore labeled here is cut down the middle, as a microscope slide shows it. The second drawing is the archegoniophore with a sporophyte, and the third is the whole liverwort.

Read the full guide

Two kinds of branch

Marchantia is a flat, forked thallus. Male and female plants are separate. A male plant sends up antheridiophores: a stalk with a lobed disc, where each antheridium sits in a chamber open to the upper face. A female plant sends up archegoniophores: a stalk with drooping rays, and the archegonia hang under the head.

The sporophyte and the gemmae

A fertilized egg grows into a small sporophyte with a foot, a seta and a capsule. The capsule sheds spores mixed with coiled elaters. The plant also spreads without spores: rain splashes gemmae out of the gemma cups, and each can grow into a new thallus.

  • The archegonium and the sporophyte are drawn much larger than life, so their parts can be found.
  • Older books call a gemma cup a cupule. The quiz takes both.

Questions and answers

What is an antheridiophore in Marchantia?

The male branch of the plant: an upright stalk topped by a flat, lobed disc. The antheridia, which make sperm, are sunk in small chambers in the upper side of the disc.

What is the difference between an antheridiophore and an archegoniophore?

The antheridiophore is the male branch and ends in a flat lobed disc. The archegoniophore is the female branch and ends in a head with drooping, finger-like rays. They grow on separate plants.

What are gemma cups for?

They hold gemmae, small discs of tissue. Rain splashes the gemmae out of the cup, and each one can grow into a new plant just like its parent.

What do elaters do?

Elaters are coiled, thread-like cells that form among the spores in the capsule. When the capsule opens they help scatter the spores.

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