Chloranthelia berggrenii (Herzog) R.M.Schust.
Type: New Zealand, North Is., Papakauri, Berggren 3269.
Maculia filosa E.A.Hodgs., Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand, Bot. 3: 72. 1965.
Chloranthelia filosa (E.A.Hodgs.) R.M.Schust., Nova Hedwigia 15: 469. 1968.
Type: New Zealand, South Is., Arthur’s Pass area, Bealey River, Feb. 1874, Berggren s.n. (MPN 8446, herb. Hodgson no. 8446, non vidi); isotype: (CHR ex herb. Hodgson!).
Plants slightly greyish green when living, dull green in herb., rather opaque; leafy shoots to 1–1.15 mm wide, normally with numerous pairs of leaves, ± dorsiventrally complanate, arising from microphyllous, fleshy, subterranean axes, with erect, non-cernuous apices that are often slightly narrowed, the leafy shoots often with a rather lengthy basal, fleshy, microphyllous sector. Branching common, normally all intercalary, usually ventral, rarely isolated ones lateral; Frullania -type branches exceedingly rare; stolons geotropic, frequent, ventral-intercalary. Stem rather pellucid, soft textured, thick and fleshy for plant size, the cortex poorly differentiated, with cells pellucid, rather thin-walled, large (cortical cells averaging much larger than leaf cells), in surface view lying in few, irregular tiers between successive leaves; medullary cells even more hyaline, as large as to somewhat larger in diameter than cortical cells. Rhizoids sparsely developed on leafy shoots, sometimes present at underleaf bases in basal, microphyllous sector. Leaves contiguous to loosely imbricate, widely spreading, very concave, weakly succubously inserted, broadly and rather asymmetrically ovate, not at all keeled, from 545–625 µm wide × 630–760 µm long (then ca. 1.2–1.3× as long as wide) to, on robust shoots, 705–750 µm wide × 610–625 µm long (then 1.1–1.2× as wide as long), asymmetrically 3–4(5)-lobed or lobulate, the deepest sinuses descending to 0.15–0.25(0.35); ventral 1–2 lobes clearly longer, the larger ones 7–8 cells wide at base, the dorsal (1)2 lobes smaller, shorter, the dorsal-most only 0.55–0.75 length of ventral lobes, in situ often appearing like a tooth on dorsal leaf margin; lobes triangular, the dorsal often sharp, the others mostly blunt to bluntish, mostly weakly to strongly incurved; lobes in suboptimal plants narrower and lanceolate to acute-acuminate, the ventral ones being only 3–5 cells wide at base; lamina margins not hyaline, entire, repand, or 1 or both margins occasionally with 1–3 small teeth toward the base. Cells of leaves leptodermous throughout, delicate, lacking all trace of trigones, small in apices and lobes, there 23–28(30) × (23)25–32 µm, toward base gradually much larger, becoming 40–52 µm wide × 65–80 µm long; surface conspicuously papillose (toward leaf bases inconspicuously striolate). Oil-bodies completely lacking, only a few scattered, tiny, glistening oil-droplets present. Chloroplasts numerous, small: 1.4–2.4 × 2.4–4.3 µm. Underleaves ca. 0.15–0.3 the size of adjacent lateral leaves, not or scarcely as wide as stem (in situ), loosely appressed to moderately patent from stem, distant to feebly imbricate above, ovate to rotund-quadrate; apices 3–4-lobulate or -dentate, weakly concave, not keeled, the lobes often consisting of 1 or 2 linear cells or lobes larger and terminating in a uniseriate row of 2 linear cells, the apical cell often with ephemeral terminal slime papilla; lamina margins entire or crenulate-denticulate or denticulate. Fungal partner absent.
Androecia unknown. Gynoecia (only immature ♀ seen) produced in great abundance on very abbreviated weak ventral-intercalary (rarely isolated ones lateral-intercalary) branches originating in a broad zone extending from the basal microphyllous sector well into the zone with normal leaves, not restricted to shoot bases; gynoecial branches bearing 1–2 cycles of minute leaves, then the hyaline, small, leptodermous, suberect cycle of bracts + bracteole.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (200–1320 m), North Island. Known from Fiordland, Otago, Westland, Canterbury and Northland EPs.
Known from a small number of widely scattered sites. In the South Island known from Wet Jacket Arm (Fiordland), Morrisons Burn (Dunedin), Mt. French (Hohonu Ra., Westland), Governors Bush (Mt. Cook Natl. Park, 760 m), Temple Basin and Bealey River (Arthur’s Pass area, type locality of Maculia filosa) and Mole Saddle (Ella Ra., N of Lewis Pass). In the North Island occurring at Papakauri (probably near Bay of Islands; see Schuster and Engel, 1987b, p. 334). The Morrisons Burn plant is from a roadside bank, under Blechnum, associated with Lembidium nutans, at the edge of a forest of Aristotelia serrata, Griselinia littoralis, Fuchsia excorticata and Pittosporum eugenioides. At Wet Jacket Arm the plants occurred under Nothofagus menziesii forest, on soil with Diplophyllum dioicum, Pachyschistochila colensoana and Bartramia papillata. At Temple Basin the plants grow under overhanging soil banks in Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium – Podocarpus nivalis scrub. The Governors Bush plants occurred on bare earth on a damp bank under an overhang in tall penalpine scrub. On Mt. French the plants were on a vertical soil bank in Olearia colensoi – Dracophyllum longifolium – Chionochloa flavescens scrub on a bluff and were growing with Pleuridium arnoldii, Isotachis montana and Jensenia connivens. Lembidium nutans and Chloranthelia berggrenii agree in their basic ecology: both appear confined to fine-grained, loamy, water-retentive soil.
Comments : The growth habit of this species is closer to that of Lembidium nutans than to that of Chloranthelia denticulata, the type of Chloranthelia. Underleaf form (especially the form of the minute lobes), stem anatomy and the great disparity between the hyaline, very large cortical cells and the small dense upper leaf cells all suggest a close affinity to L. nutans. The closely papillose distal portions of the leaves and almost smooth, large-celled leaf bases are also as in that species. However, the essentially constant intercalary branching, and the more clearly and asymmetrically lobed leaves suggest a closer affinity to C. denticulata. Final placement of this species must await discovery of androecia and sporophytes. The species differs from all New Zealand taxa in the succubous, strongly asymmetrically 4-lobed leaves with reduced dorsal lobes.
