Radula (plant)

Radula is a genus of liverwort, and is the only genus in family Radulaceae.

It is a leafy liverwort. The appearance of the plants are as a scaly, green surface on the trunk of a tree, log or rock in a sheltered, moist out-door environment. The leaves are rounded, overlapping and consist of two unequal lobes. The smaller lobe is folded beneath the larger one. The oldest fossil species is Radula cretacea from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber of Myanmar, belonging to the subgenus of Odontoradula. Molecular evidence suggests that the genus arose during the Triassic, around 227.8 Ma, and the crown group began to diversify during the Early Jurassic, around 176.3 Ma.