Calobryales

(botany) An order of liverworts; characterized by prostrate, simple or branched, leafless stems and erect, leafy branches of a radial organization.

An order of liverworts. They are characterized by prostrate, simple or branched, leafless stems and erect, leafy branches of a radial organization. The order consists of a single genus, Calobryum, and 12 species, most of them occupying restricted ranges in apparently relic areas indicative of an ancient origin and dispersal. The order is considered primitive in comparison with the Jungermanniales, in which the leafy axis tends to be prostrate and the underleaves reduced. The stems are thick and fleshy, with no differentiated outer layers. Rhizoids are lacking. The leaves may be small or lacking below, larger and more crowded above. They are three-ranked, with those of one rank sometimes more or less reduced. They are broad, unlobed, and entire. See also Bryophyta; Jungermanniales; Jungermanniidae.