Cryptochila acinacifolia (Hook.f. & Taylor) Grolle
Jungermannia acinacifolia Hook.f. & Taylor, London J. Bot. 3: 367. 1844.
Gymnomitrium acinacifolium (Hook.f. & Taylor) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees, Syn. Hepat. 616. 1846.
Acolea acinacifolia (Hook.f. & Taylor) Trevis., Mem. Reale Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett. III, 4: 395. 1877.
Cesiusa acinacifolia (Hook.f. & Taylor) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 833. 1891.
Jamesoniella acinacifolia (Hook.f. & Taylor) Berggr., New Zealand Hepat. 14. 1898.
Cryptochila acinacifolia (Hook.f. & Taylor) Grolle, Feddes Repert. 82: 29. 1971.
Lectotype (fide Grolle, 1971a): Campbell Is., Hooker (BM, non vidi).
Plants rigid, loosely prostrate, the shoot apex slightly curved upward, the plants as semi-scattered shoots or in very compact tufts and then with a densely interwoven mat of leafless, stoloniform branches beneath, the plants deep reddish brown to blackish, the shoots to 2 cm long, to 1.6 mm wide. Stems light to deep brown, the cortical cells not sharply delimited, in 2–4 layers of darker-pigmented, evenly thick-walled cells; medullary cells somewhat larger, pale, unevenly thick-walled. Paraphyllia lacking in sterile shoot sectors. Rhizoids on stolons and the lower portions of normal leafy shoots. Branching always ventral-intercalary, in sterile portions of the shoot from basal or distal sectors of shoot; leafless, geotropic stoloniform branches abundantly produced, often arising near the base of leafy branches. Leaves multistratose in basal portion, the multistratose portion broadest at insertion, extending from dorsal margin to the vitta (to ca. 15 cells wide), narrowing distally, the leaves rigid, densely imbricate, the leaves when dry dorsally obliquely assurgent and laterally appressed to stem, when moist the distal portion obliquely to widely spreading, the ventral leaf bases tightly shingled and appressed to stem, the dorsal margins plane, not undulate, stiffly vertically oriented from base to tip (seen on edge in dorsal view), the median base concave, the insertion weakly succubous to nearly transverse, not crossing the stem midline dorsally, the leaves narrowly elliptic to oblong, to 2:1, lingulate, 410–440 µm wide × 750–820 µm long, the apex rounded; dorsal margin almost straight, thickened and 2–3(4)-stratose in and some distance above the moderately decurrent base (at times in lower 0.5 of leaf); ventral margin weakly arched, especially at the base, not or very short-decurrent. Cells in distal portion with uniformly strongly thickened walls, the cells toward the leaf apex and margins subquadrate, isodiametric, 11–14 µm wide and long, the marginal cells at times bleached, but not thicker-walled; median-basal cells elongated (to 5.6:1), forming a broad vitta-like sector occupying the middle third of leaf, the cells evenly thick-walled or with knob-like thickenings on longitudinal walls; surface smooth. Underleaves absent.
Androecia with up to 6 pairs of bracts; bracts pouched, with a small, thick, inflexed lobulus; antheridia single, the stalk biseriate. Gynoecia on leading shoots. Perianth (only young seen) broad-elliptic, contracted to mouth, deeply plicate nearly to base, the mouth shallowly lobulate, weakly crenulate, the marginal cells slightly elongated, the marginal and submarginal cells thick-walled.
Sporophytes unknown.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Campbell Island (396–540 m), Stewart Island (530–1000 m), South Island (1000–1280 m). In the South Island known from Fiordland (Secretary Island, Mt. Alexander, Eldrig Peak), Westland (Kelly Ra., Westland, ca. 1400 m, Child H4597; leg. Berggren [Grolle, 1971a]) and Western Nelson (Mt. Euclid, Glasgow Ra.) EPs.
At the summit of Mt. Rocky (Stewart Island, 530 m) it occurred on south-facing, very exposed, prominent rocky outcrops, with a wind-pruned heath dominated by Leptospermum scoparium to ca. 50 cm high. At the summit of Mt. Rakeahua (also Stewart Island, 600–690 m) it was found on a thin layer of soil in a protected pocket at the base of a rock outcrop in mosaic communities of penalpine cushion vegetation, herbfields, Chionochloa, prostrate L. scoparium and Olearia colensoi from 0.5 m to 2 m tall and significant areas of exposed rock. On the Glasgow Ra. and Mt. Euclid it was found in soil pockets on shaded granite bluffs with Schoenus pauciflorus, Grammitis poeppigiana, Forstera sedifolia, Rhacocarpus purpurascens and Paraschistochila conchophylla. Other species that have been found with Cryptochila acinacifolia are Andreaea mutabilis, Andrewsianthus cuspidatus, Campylopus clavatus, Conostomum pentastichum, Hepatostolonophora rotata, Herzogobryum teres, Jamesoniella colorata, Racomitrium crispulum, Radula sainsburiana and Wijkia extenuata.
Comments : This rare species has lingulate leaves like those of Jamesoniella kirkii (p. 717), but lacks the distinctive transversely undulate dorsal margins and strongly developed knot-like trigones of that species. Its most unusual feature is the thickened, multistratose strip along the dorsal leaf margin near the insertion (Fig. 163: 6), clearly visible in dorsal aspect as a narrow, V-shaped wedge (Fig. 163: 2). The leaf cells of Cryptochila acinacifolia have uniformly thickened walls, as in C. grandiflora.
