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THE CORAL TRIANGLE: HEARST BIODIVERSITY EXPEDITION 
Are sporophytes required? 
While reproductive structures are generally essential for the identification of flowering plant 
specimens, sporophytes (the reproductive structure of a bryophyte) are rarely critical for species 
identification. However, when sporophytes are present they should be collected as part of the sam¬ 
ple. Not all sporophytes are erect on a stalk (called a seta). For some bryophytes, the sporophytes 
can be hidden among the leaves but these structures can be easily seen with a hand-lens or dissect¬ 
ing microscope. A few bryophyte species have never been documented with sporophytes, so do not 
limit your inventory sampling based on the lack of reproductive structures. There will be cases 
where a specimen cannot be named with a high level of certainty to the species level without sporo¬ 
phytes, but at least you will have documented that a particular genus is present at a specific local¬ 
ity. 
Special things to do with liverwort collections 
Liverworts have many important diagnostic features that are either lost in the drying process 
or are harder to reeognize once the speeimens are dry. Thallose liverworts and homworts should 
always be examined when collected in a fresh condition because once dried they can look consid¬ 
erably different than when observed in the field. Liverwort packets can be placed within a plastic 
bag to keep them moist then placed into the plastic boxes for transport. Once home from the field, 
liverworts can be kept in then* packets for a few days in the refrigerator to keep the material hydrat¬ 
ed. Each livemort collection should be examined under the compound microscope to record key 
diagnostic features that will then be used later during the identification process. Taking the time to 
gather these data while the specimen is fresh will expedite the eventual identification of the spec¬ 
imen later. Oil bodies and/or ocelli in many liverwort genera are critical to successful identifica¬ 
tion; however, these features can disappear either during the drying process or be altered substan¬ 
tially. For liverwort collections, examine cells across the leaf and record presence or absence of oil 
bodies and/or ocelli, their form, number, color, and their distribution in the cell. Under leaves 
(shape and size) are easier to examine on fresh material and these data should be added to the 
examination data set. Other diagnostic features observed on fresh specimens should be recorded to 
aid in identification of the specimen at a later date. Record the data on a sheet or card and place it 
withm the packet so it is retained with the specimen. Once the data is recorded, diy the specimens 
as quickly as possible as described above. 
How TO PROCESS BRYOPHYTE SPECIMENS 
As soon as possible after returning from a collecting event, a draft label for each collected 
specimen needs to be created. You should get into the habit of doing this at the end of each trip oth¬ 
erwise a backlog is created and the task may later become daunting. In addition to keeping up with 
your collecting activities, you are likely to have a clearer memory of the collecting sites in the event 
some particular item was overlooked during data collection. Among botanists the development of 
labels can be the greatest impediment toward processing collections. Many botanists enjoy the field 
work component or the identification process but do not follow through with timely label process¬ 
ing. There are several ways to develop a herbarium label but one should strive to have a computer 
database program so label information can be readily retrieved. First, develop then print a set of 
draff labels. When the specimens are dried, staple each numbered label to its corresponding num¬ 
bered field collecting packet. Once the draft labels are attached to the specimen packets they no 
longer need to remain in numerical order, but rather, specimens can be organized by various taxo¬ 
nomic groupings to expedite the identification process. It is considerably easier to identify collec- 
