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The Brevianthaceae is monogeneric liverwort family represented by a
single species, Brevianthus flavus. This species was
previously thought to be endemic to western Tasmania but was
recently collected in New Zealand.
B. flavus is a wet forest to rainforest epiphyte, often
favoring lateral tree branches. The shoots pale to yellow green. The
leaves succubously inserted onto the stem, rounded, and sometimes
harbor a few wide-based teeth at the
apex.
The microscopic characters are unmistakable. The leaf margins are
hyaline and the leaf cells have large dome-like thickenings which
are covered with dense hemispherical papillae. The cells have large
trigones and contain ~3 finely granular oil bodies.
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