Flora of New Zealand Series

Kurzia quinquespina J.J.Engel & Merrill, J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 80: 217. f. 1. 1996.

Telaranea quinquespina (J.J.Engel & Merrill) J.J.Engel & Merrill, Fieldiana, Bot. 44: 109. 2004. 

Holotype: New Zealand, South Is., Buller Co., gorge of Bullock Creek, 1.2 miles E of Rte. 6, 100 ft., Fife 4720 (F); isotype: (CHR).

[Fig. 74]

Plants delicate, loosely to densely caespitose in felt-like mats (or creeping as individual strands among other bryophytes), minutely prickly in appearance, pale green, nitid; shoots minute, to 845 µm wide with leaves. Branching sparing to rather common, irregular, with Frullania - and Microlepidozia -type terminal branches and ventral- and lateral-intercalary branches; terminal branches with half-leaf undivided and setaceous (rarely bifid), biseriate in basal tier (occasionally with a second biseriate tier), the uniseriate row of 4–5 cells; first branch underleaf on base of branch, symmetrically bilobed, resembling a leaf but with shorter lobes, the uniseriate row 4 cells long (rarely asymmetrically bilobed and resembling the stem underleaves); ventral- and lateral-intercalary branches frequent, often becoming leading, leafy shoots; leafless geotropic ventral-intercalary and lateral-intercalary stolons frequently present. Stems slender, delicate and thread-like, the cortical cells in 6(7) rows, the outer wall thicker-walled; medullary cells much smaller in diameter than the cortical cells, in (3)4–5 rows. Leaves contiguous to laxly imbricate, widely spreading, the insertion transverse or nearly so, 230–450 × 220–365 µm (between tips of spreading lobes), bifid almost to the base (the basal cells connate for 0.3 to 0.5 their length), occasionally 3-lobed. Lobes ± equal in length, stiff, subcapillary, gradually tapering from base to apex, straight to broadly curved, widely divergent, biseriate at the base (at times uniseriate to base on some shoots), with a uniseriate row of (4)5–6(7) cells; cells of basal tier (13)17–24 µm wide × 42–62 µm long, basal cell of uniseriate row 15–25 × 55–96 µm, the next cell of about the same length and width, the terminal cell distinctly shorter than the penultimate cell, at times appearing secondarily divided; cell walls firm, moderately thick-walled, the transverse septa of uniseriate row thickened in the corners and swollen to weakly projecting; surface smooth. Underleaves asymmetrically bilobed, consisting of a longer lobe that is biseriate at the base and ending in a uniseriate row of 4(5) cells, thus resembling a leaf lobe, the other lobe abbreviated, consisting of a pair of short basal cells and a ± elongated distal cell, terminating in a slime papilla, the underleaves occasionally 3-lobed, with middle lobe abbreviated, or sporadically with 2 abbreviated lobes; paired cells at base of the shorter lobe(s) at times transversely divided, with rhizoids produced from the resulting rhizoid initials. Asexual reproduction lacking.

Plants dioecious. Androecium on a short, determinate, lateral-intercalary branch from main shoot, loosely spicate; bracts concave, 3-lobed to ca. 0.65, the disc 1(2) cells high, the lobes 2–3 cells wide at base, slenderly tapering, terminating in a uniseriate row of up to 4 cells; antheridia 1 per bract, the stalk uniseriate. Gynoecia on short, ventral- and lateral-intercalary branches from main shoot; innermost bracts and bracteole similar, the disc subquadrate, ± regularly (3)4(5)-lobed to 0.4 (often bisbifid, the lobes in pairs), the lobes ciliiform, uniseriate or 2 cells wide at extreme base, the uniseriate row of 3–4 cells (4 when uniseriate to base), the disc margins with several small blunt teeth. Perianth terete in basal half, tapering to the strongly plicate, shallowly lobulate-ciliate mouth, the divisions ca. 9, acuminate, 2–4 cells wide at base, ending in a single, elongate, blunt-tipped cell or uniseriate row of 2 elongate cells, the margins of divisions weakly dentate by projecting ends of cells.

Seta with 8 rows of larger epidermal cells surrounding an inner core of 10–12 much smaller cells. Capsule oblong-ellipsoidal, the wall 28–36 µm thick, 2(locally 3)-stratose, the outer layer subequal to the inner or slightly thicker (the inner layer thinnest in 3-stratose portions); outer layer of cells distinctly tiered, ± regularly short-rectangular, with two-phase development, the radial longitudinal walls with rather thin, pigmented, sheet-like thickenings that are sinuate or with local, pigmented, nodular swellings (2–4 per cell), alternating with primary walls devoid of thickenings, the transverse walls without thickenings; inner layer of cells narrowly rectangular, with semiannular bands frequent, widely spaced, complete or less commonly incomplete and then extending onto the tangential wall as spine-like extensions or nodular swellings.

Spores 14.4–19.2 µm in diam., the wall pale reddish brown, with distinct, low, rough papillae, often coalescing into short ridges that do not anastomose to form areolae. Elaters somewhat twisted, 8.2–9.1 µm wide, slightly tapering, bispiral to tips, the spirals 3.4 µm wide.

Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Stewart Island (5 m), South Island (135 m), North Island (60–1080 m). Known from Westland, Volcanic Plateau (Tongariro Natl. Park, Atiamuri), Gisborne, Auckland (Kaimai Ra., Coromandel Peninsula) and Northland EPs.

Known from few and scattered localities. Telaranea quinquespina for the most part occurs loosely in damp, shaded niches on steep-sided banks, bryophyte-covered tree bases, cliff faces and stream banks in lower- to middle-elevation forests. The species appears to grow in at most moderately shaded conditions and may even tolerate relatively open situations (Cascade ultramafic moraine). The Stewart Island as well both South Island stations are at lower elevations. On Stewart Island the species occurred near sea level in a mosaic of stagnant ponds, Sphagnum bog, open Leptospermum scoparium – Dracophyllum heath to 1–2 m tall and dense communities of Gleichenia dicarpa and Empodisma minus. At this site the species formed a loose intertwined layer below the surface litter. The type (Bullock Creek gorge, Punakaiki, 30 m) occurred on a weakly shaded limestone face with Adiantum and Coprosma at the margin of a vehicle track. In Westland (Cascade Road, 135 m), in an area of ultramafic rocks and outcrops with rather open vegetation consisting mainly of Gleichenia, Lycopodiella, Baumea, the lichen Cladonia and scattered Leptospermum scoparium, the species occurs terricolous on slopes with Kurzia hippuroides. At the northernmost station (Radar Bush near North Cape at 34° 28.59 S) the species occurs on very thin soil over rock of a bank above a stream at the bottom of a steep-sided valley within a forest of Beilschmiedia – Vitex – Hoheria and Cyathea dealbata. At the single higher-elevation forest locality (Mt. Ruapehu, Taranaki Falls track, 1080 m), the plants occurred over soil in a shaded pocket of a bank in a steep-sided canyon through forest of Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides, Griselinia littoralis, Pseudopanax colensoi and Podocarpus hallii.

Comments : Telaranea quinquespina resembles T. herzogii (p. 350), but can be readily distinguished by the biseriate tier of cells at the base of each lobe (Fig. 74: 6, 7). The leaf lobes of T. herzogii are typically uniseriate to the base (Fig. 75: 5, 6). In addition, the underleaves in T. quinquespina are asymmetrically bilobed (Fig. 74: 1, 3), with the stronger lobe remarkably similar to (and only slightly shorter than) the lobe of a leaf (Fig. 74: 4). Both ventral-intercalary and lateral-intercalary branches are frequently produced in T. quinquespina. Terminal, Microlepidozia - and Frullania -type branches are infrequently produced, but not in regular alternation on opposite sides of the stem as, for example, in T. quadriseta.