Andrewsianthus R.M.Schust.
Jungermannia perigonialis Hook.f. & Taylor, London J. Bot. 3: 368. 1844.
Sarcoscyphus perigonialis (Hook.f. & Taylor) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees, Syn. Hepat. 618. 1846.
Nardia perigonialis (Hook.f. & Taylor) Trevis., Mem. Reale Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett. III, 4: 401. 1877.
Sphenolobus perigonialis (Hook.f. & Taylor) Berggr., New Zealand Hepat. 1: 22. 1898.
Lophozia perigonialis (Hook.f. & Taylor) Grolle, Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 31: 155. 1962.
Andrewsianthus perigonialis (Hook.f. & Taylor) R.M.Schust., Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 34: 281. 1966.
Type: Auckland Is.
[Fig. 150: 4, 6, oil-bodies, p. 684]
Plants rather wiry, green, tinted brown to chestnut-brown, the leafy shoots to 840 µm wide, at least sporadically becoming flagelliform and geotropic. Branching frequent, the branches lateral-intercalary, Andrewsianthus -type branches present, the leafy shoots arising from a system of plagiotropic, microphyllous, arcuate axes; ventral-intercalary branches occasional, from leafy shoots, the branches stoloniform and geotropic; stoloniform, microphyllous shoots sometimes predominant in some populations. Stems rigid, the cortex in 1–2 layers of thick-walled cells smaller than those of the medullary. Leaves vertical, stiffly obliquely to widely spreading, only slightly dorsally assurgent, remote, transversely oriented, the insertion nearly transverse dorsally, quite succubous elsewhere, the lines of insertion extending to stem midline dorsally; leaves somewhat concave, ovate to oblong-ovate, subsymmetric to ± symmetric, the ventral margin at times a little more strongly arched than the dorsal, the dorsal and ventral leaf bases not dilated, so that the leaf bases do not extend beyond the stem midline, the leaves 420–700 µm wide × 580–700 µm long, somewhat asymmetrically 0.15–0.2(0.25) bilobed, the ventral lobe larger; lobes mostly blunt, at times obtusely rounded; sinus obtuse, angular to crescentic. Cells with walls firm, with trigones large and bulging, often ± confluent, the marginal cells in lobes 13–18(20) µm wide, the median cells 15–18 × 18–25 µm, the basal cells are essentially identical in size and not distinctly longer; surface weakly striate-papillose. Oil-bodies occupying moderate to conspicuous portion of cell lumen, dull, pale smokey grey, 2–4 to 3–5(7) per median leaf cell, finely granular, no protrusion of the tiny spherules, the oil-bodies subglobose and 5–6.5 µm in diam. to broadly elliptic and 4–6.5 × 9–12 µm, often somewhat irregular. Underleaves completely lacking (ventral merophytes only ?1 cell broad, the lines of insertion extending nearly to stem midline ventrally). Asexual reproduction lacking.
Androecia terminal but becoming intercalary on leading leafy axes, laxly spicate, the bracts deeply concave-ventricose throughout. Gynoecial bracts of innermost series 3-lobed, often asymmetrically so, the lobe apices blunt, the margins entire, the lamina margins entire or the dorsal margin with a tooth; bracteole conspicuous, distinctly connate on one side (fused to ca. 0.45 bracteole length), bilobed, the lobe margins entire, the lamina margins entire or the free margin with a tooth. Perianth and sporophyte not seen.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Auckland Islands, Stewart Island (3–ca. 100 m), South Island (ca. 1200 m); Australia: Tasmania (McCarthy, 2003). There are a number of collections from the Auckland Islands, but only three from Rakiura EP, including one from Whenua Hou (on a rock outcrop in scrub above Sealers Bay) and one from Canterbury (Arthur’s Pass) EP.
At Belltopper Falls on Stewart Island it is found on a thin layer of soil on vertical or slightly overhanging bedrock surfaces only 3 m from the waterfall’s edge and about 10 m from the sea, at a site kept constantly damp by spray from the falls, with Hymenophyllum armstrongii, Drepanolejeunea aucklandica and Lepidozia kirkii. Regenerating Weinmannia racemosa forest partially shades the site. At Otira Valley Track (Arthur’s Pass Natl. Park, Canterbury, ca. 1200 m) plants occurred in a very tight mat comprised of Jamesoniella colorata and a filmy fern on the vertical face of bedrock near the top of a steep-sided knoll that had predominantly tussock-covered slopes with Ranunculus sp. and Chionochloa sp. and bryophyte-covered banks.
Comments : The shallowly bilobed leaves, divided to at most 0.2, the blunt to narrowly rounded leaf lobes, the weakly striate-papillose leaf surface and the absence of underleaves will separate this species from other New Zealand members of the genus.
