common greasewort vs Compact Stonewort

Aneura pinguis compared with Nitella tenuissima

Key Differences

• common greasewort is Least Concern while Compact Stonewort is Extinct.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	common greasewort	Compact Stonewort
Kingdom same	Plantae (Plants)	Plantae (Plants)
Phylum	Marchantiophyta (liverwort)	Charophyta (Charophyta)
Class	Jungermanniopsida (Jungermanniopsida)	Charophyceae (Charophyceae)
Order	Metzgeriales (Metzgeriales)	Charales (Charales)
Family	Aneuraceae	Characeae
Genus	Aneura	Nitella
Species	Aneura pinguis	Nitella tenuissima

Evolutionary Relationship

common greasewort and Compact Stonewort share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Plantae. (Plants)

Conservation Status

common greasewort

LC — Least Concern

Compact Stonewort

EX — Extinct

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	common greasewort	Compact Stonewort
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

common greasewort

Habitat

Native to Asia and Europe and North America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (6 countries), North America (United States), and South America (Brazil, Colombia).

Compact Stonewort

Habitat

Native to Asia and Europe and North America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Distributed across Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, and United States.

common greasewort

<em>Aneura pinguis</em>, commonly known as common greasewort, is a liverwort belonging to the genus Aneura within the family Aneuraceae. This cryptogamic plant inhabits ecosystems across Asia, Europe, and North America, thriving in moist or waterlogged environments. Its range encompasses Taiwan in Asia, six European countries, the United States in North America, and Brazil and Colombia in South America, indicating a broad geographic distribution across multiple continents. Common greasewort is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The species typically forms flat, ribbon-like thalli in damp habitats such as stream banks, wet rocks, and boggy ground. Biological traits of this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature.

Compact Stonewort

<em>Nitella tenuissima</em>, a stonewort formerly found in fresh and brackish water habitats, was a member of the charophyte family Characeae — the algal lineage most closely related to land plants. Historical records document its occurrence across Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States, where it inhabited clear, oligotrophic lakes, ponds, and slow-flowing water bodies with low nutrient levels. Like other Nitella species, it was a delicate, translucent, submerged aquatic plant lacking the calcium carbonate encrustation of related genera, forming low-growing mats on soft sediments in well-illuminated shallow water. The species played a role in aquatic ecosystems by stabilising lake sediments, contributing to water clarity, and providing microhabitat for invertebrates and small aquatic organisms. <em>Nitella tenuissima</em> is classified as Extinct by the IUCN, having not been recorded from any of its former localities despite targeted searches. The primary causes of its extinction are believed to be widespread eutrophication of freshwater habitats driven by agricultural nutrient runoff and sewage discharge, which eliminated the clear, nutrient-poor conditions on which the species depended. The loss of this stonewort is emblematic of the broader decline of freshwater charophyte diversity across the Northern Hemisphere. Biological traits including historical morphological measurements and reproductive parameters are documented only in sparse historical herbarium specimens and early botanical literature.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 5 countries:

🇧🇷 Brazil 🇳🇴 Norway 🇸🇪 Sweden 🇹🇼 Taiwan 🇺🇸 United States