Flora of New Zealand Series

Jungermannia quadripartita Hook., Musci Exot. 2: pl. 117, f. 1–3. 1820.

Temnoma quadripartitum (Hook.) Mitt., J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 15: 68. 1876.

Blepharostoma quadripartitum (Hook.) Trevis., Mem. Reale Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett. III, 4: 417. 1877. 

Type: Argentina, Terr. Tierra del Fuego, Isla de los Estados, Menzies.

For extra-Australasian synonyms see Engel (1978, 1990a).

[Fig. 20: 3, oil-bodies, p. 150]

Plants usually rigid, rather wiry-stemmed, brownish to brownish green, usually scattered, exceptionally in small, nearly pure tufts, creeping to, with crowding, caespitose, small to medium, 0.8–1.2 mm wide. Branches sparing, irregular, usually of Frullania type, occasionally of Microlepidozia type, rarely ventral-intercalary. Leaves often rigid, small, remote to barely contiguous, the lamina stiffly, widely spreading, with ± suberect to ascending lobes, thus ± concave, the insertion ranging from transverse to somewhat succubous to (rarely) feebly incubous, the leaves obtrapezoidal to subquadrate-obtrapezoidal to obdeltoid to reniform-obtrapezoidal in outline, symmetrically quadrilobed to (0.6)0.75–0.85 (isolated leaves trifid). Lobes slenderly lanceolate-acute to ± gradually acuminate, (2)3–5 to 6(7–11) cells wide at base, the tapering apex formed by 3–5(7) cells in a row, the lobes rarely uniseriate nearly throughout ( var. pseudopungens); lobes in basal half often with (0)1–2(4) pairs of spinescent, stiff teeth, the teeth often only in part opposing (the upper frequently solitary), never bifurcate, short above (and there only 1–3 cells long) and longer below (there sometimes 3–5-celled); teeth of lobes (particularly near the sinuses) sharply reflexed, ventrally displaced and lying almost at right angles to the leaf plane, in profile the plants thus appearing to have a stiffly spinose abaxial leaf surface; cells of teeth and lobe apices short, thick-walled (septa weakly dilated externally), 13–21 × 18–28 µm (weak phases) to 16–18 × 36–65(90) µm (vigorous phases), smooth to usually faintly, rarely strongly striolate. Disc only (2)3–5(7) cells high, occasionally 6–8 cells high on very vigorous plants; dorsal and/or ventral base with a tooth (widely spreading or reflexed) that is often larger than normal and is often large enough to suggest a 5–6-lobed leaf, or the margins with a few small teeth ( var. pseudopungens). Cells of lobes and disc thick-walled (except basal cells of disc, which are sometimes leptodermous), the lobe cells 13–19 × 18–30 µm; surface smooth to faintly striolate-papillose. Oil-bodies occupying conspicuous volume of lumen, pale smokey grey, opaque, 3–6 per median disc cell, obscurely and indistinctly granular, with a hazy appearance, mostly subglobose, less often broadly elliptic. Underleaves distinctly smaller than leaves, otherwise like leaves but margins espinose or with mostly only 1(2) sharp, short teeth per lobe, quadrifid to 0.65–0.9, the disc (1)2 or 3–5 cells high, with one or both lateral bases often having a larger reflexed tooth.

Androecia intercalary (sometimes on rather short lateral branches), strongly differentiated; bracts very strongly concave, transverse, equal to or even slightly larger than leaves, much less deeply lobed than leaves and with shorter, usually erect lobes; margins of lobes spinose like the more spinose leaves, but disc bases without the large teeth of the leaves. Gynoecia with bracts erect, narrowly obtrapezoidal to cuneiform, gradually larger than leaves and becoming much more spinescent, divided to ca. 0.6–0.75, the lobes linear-lanceolate, long-acuminate, ending in a filament of (3)4–6(8) isodiametric to ± strongly elongated single cells, often somewhat canaliculate, the lobe margins with 3–8(9) pairs of (generally abaxially reflexed) spinescent teeth per lobe; disc and lobe margins with spinescent teeth formed of (1)2–3 cells, those of the disc margins ca. 4–6 per margin. Perianth strongly elongate, strongly triplicate for 0.35–0.55 its length, distally with feeble accessory plicae, contracted to the mouth, which bears crowded, juxtaposed, short, stiff teeth and short cilia, strongly tapering to sharp points.

Spores 12 µm in diam. Elaters 7.2–9 µm wide, the spirals 2.5–3 µm wide.

The species may be subdivided into three varieties, all of which occur in New Zealand. These may be distinguished as follows: