Among liverworts, basidiomycete and ascomycete fungi are secondary symbiotic acquisitions of recent origin following the loss of ancestral glomeromycetes. Complex thalloid liverworts (Marchantiopsida), the basal liverwort lineage and most simple thalloid liverworts (Metzgeriopsida) associate with glomeromycete fungi in a way similar to most vascular plants (Ligrone et al. 2007). The topology of liverwort phylogenies strongly supports symbioses with glomeromycete fungi as a basal trait of liverworts that long predates arbuscular mycorrhizas in other plants (Davis 2004; Kottke & Nebel 2005; He-Nygrén et al. 2006)