Lepidozia laevifolia (Hook.f. & Taylor) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees
Holotype: New Zealand, South Is., Fiordland Natl. Park, Gertrude Cirque NE of Homer Tunnel, below saddle on W-facing exposed cliff, 1945 m, Schuster 95-2089 (herb. Schuster).
Plants 500–550 to 760–810 µm wide with leaves, rather remotely pinnate, the branches in small part becoming flagelliform, rhizoidous; leaves strongly asymmetrically bifid, with each lobe again bifid, ca. 380–420 µm wide × 440–480(500) µm long; dorsal half of leaf much larger and longer than ventral half, ca. 0.15–0.2(0.25) bilobed, the lobes acute but not strongly so, ending in 2–3 subisodiametric or isodiametric cells; cells of disc strongly and evenly thick-walled, trigones lacking, the median disc cells (18)20–26 µm wide; surface papillose (at times obscurely so).
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand. Known only from type plants, which occurred admixed with Herbertus oldfieldianus and Gymnomitrion strictum, creeping amidst Hymenophyllum.
Comments : The var. alpina is similar to var. acutiloba, also of higher elevations, in the shallow dorsal-most sinus and the broadly acute lobes. The var. alpina differs from var. acutiloba in the exceptionally shallow dorsal-most sinus, in the exceedingly thick-walled leaf cells, and in the somewhat larger median disc cells ([18]20–26 µm wide vs. 16–20 µm wide in var. acutiloba). Also, in var. alpina the dorsal-most sinus tends to be narrower than in var. acutiloba and may even be slit-like.
Varietyalpina has distinctly thick-walled cells reminiscent of Lepidozia pumila. However, t Varietyalpina has shorter and much less tapered dorsal leaf lobes, separated by a rather shallow sinus. Also, unlike L. pumila, the sinus separating the two dorsal lobes is usually much shallower than that separating the two ventral lobes. In L. pumila the dorsal sinus descends ca. 0.3–0.35 the leaf length, Varietyalpina only about (0.15)0.2–0.25 the leaf length. Moreover, L. pumila lacks an auriculate dorsal leaf base, has larger disc cells (to 33 µm wide vs. at most 26 µm wide Varietyalpina and has ventral merophytes 5–6 cells wide vs. 6–8 cells wide Varietyalpina.
