Telaranea tridactylis (Lehm. & Lindenb.) J.J.Engel & G.L.Merr.
Jungermannia tridactylis Lehm. & Lindenb. in Lehm., Nov. Min. Cogn. Stirp. Pug. 4: 41. 1832.
Lepidozia tridactylis (Lehm. & Lindenb.) Mont. in Dumont d’Urville, Voy. Pôle Sud, Bot. 1: 245. 1845.
Telaranea tridactylis (Lehm. & Lindenb.) J.J.Engel & Merrill, Phytologia 79: 253. June 1996 (1995).
Type: “Nova Hollandia,” without specific loc., sin. coll., “Hb. Berol[inensis] 46” (W!, Lindenberg Hepat. no. 4636).
Lepidozia oldfieldiana Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 581. 1909, syn. nov.
Lectotype (fide Engel and Merrill, 2004): Tasmania, without specific loc., Oldfield, ex herb. Kew (G! – c. ♂).
Plants rather stiff and wiry, prostrate in compact mats, light olive-green, highly nitid when dry, not water-repellent; shoots very small for subgenus, the main shoots 350–560 µm wide (0.5 cm wide with branches). Branching irregularly to regularly 1-pinnate, occasionally locally 2-pinnate, the branches of the Frullania type; branch half-leaf bifid, the lobes sometimes widely divergent; first branch underleaf undivided, subulate, inserted on ventral or ventral-lateral side of branch near juncture of branch and main axis. Ventral-intercalary branches common, leafy or sporadically flagelliform. Stems with cortical cells in 12–13 rows, often rather thick-walled and firm in surface view; medullary cells in ca. 38 rows, the cells much smaller than cortical cells. Rhizoids sparse, from distal cells of underleaf disc. Leaves on main shoot rigid, fragile, widely spreading, but not at right angles to stem, loosely imbricate to conspicuously distant, plane or slightly concave resulting from occasional gentle incurving of lobes, the insertion variable: subtransverse to strongly incubous to almost longitudinal; leaves (145)265–385 µm wide × (120)235–335 µm long, subsymmetric, 4-lobed (rarely 5–6-lobed) to 0.45–0.6, the lobes moderately to widely, and at times asymmetrically, divergent (on more distant leaves on the main axis the lateral lobes often widely spreading, forming an angle of 180° with each other); branch leaves typically closely and regularly imbricate, weakly asymmetrical. Lobes narrowly attenuate, tapering from 2–4 cells wide at extreme base followed by 1–2(4) biseriate tiers, terminating in a uniseriate row of (2)3–5 cells; cells of the uniseriate portion short to weakly elongate, moderately thick-walled. Disc ± symmetrically weakly cuneate, 3–5 cells high (disc of branch leaves to 6(7) cells high), 11–16 cells wide in distal portion narrowing to (7)8(9) cells wide in basal tier. Cells of disc typically evenly and moderately thick-walled, the areolation rather compact and lacking the regular arrangement of other Telaranea species (secondary divisions of disc cells random in both planes); median cells small, 18–23 µm wide × 26–38(42) µm long; basal cells considerably larger and forming an obvious tier; surface with a network of fine irregular striae. Underleaves much smaller than leaves, spreading nearly or at 90° to stem, distant, slightly convex (ventral view), 3–4-lobed to 0.45–0.55, the lobes narrowly attenuate to subciliiform, 2 cells wide at the base, terminating in a uniseriate row of 2–3 slightly elongated, somewhat thick-walled cells, or consisting entirely of the uniseriate row, terminating in a slime papilla; disc weakly cuneate, 2–3(4) cells high (median sinus), the cells in ± regular tiers; disc 9–10 cells wide in distal portion (6–8 cells wide in 3-lobed underleaves), narrowing to 8 cells wide at base (6 cells wide in 3-lobed underleaves), the basal row of cells on the whole longer and forming an obvious tier. Asexual reproduction lacking.
Dioecious. Androecia either on short Frullania -type branches with a few to several (to 5) cycles of normal vegetative leaves prior to androecial formation, or on short, abbreviated, ventral-intercalary branches lacking normal vegetative leaves; bracts closely imbricate, strongly dorsally assurgent, the entire bract deeply concave, 2(3)-lobed, each lobe terminating in a uniseriate row of 2–3 not to hardly elongated cells; lamina cells not tiered, irregular in shape and arrangement, the lamina margins sometimes denticulate, often with stalked or sessile slime papillae; antheridia 1 per bract, large for bract size, the stalk uniseriate; bracteolar antheridia absent. Gynoecia with bracts and bracteoles in 3 series, inserted on the vestigial perigynium; bracts becoming progressively larger and less deeply lobate toward the perianth, those of innermost series deeply concave, with apices rounded, irregularly denticulate with sporadic 1–2-celled teeth; bract margins crenulate to irregularly repand, with a few sessile slime papillae, the bracts with a border formed of 1 row of cells longer, narrower and more irregular than those within; bracteole nearly identical in size and form. Perianth 0.65–0.8 emergent, narrowly fusiform, 5–7.2× longer than wide, terete in basal half, the distal half obscurely trigonous and with 5–6 deep plicae, gradually and distinctly narrowing toward the contracted mouth; mouth with 6 narrowly triangular lobes, each lobe fringed with thick-walled, contorted, coarsely papillose cilia, the cilia consisting of 2–4 elongated cells with thickened and swollen septa, often with a knob-like swelling at the basal end of the cells just above the septa; perianth 2–4 stratose in basal portion, the median portion 2(locally 1)-stratose.
Seta with 8 rows of outer cells (each with their free face bulging), surrounding an inner core of 17–18 much smaller thin-walled cells. Capsule rather short-ellipsoidal, the wall 24–30 µm thick, of 3 layers, the outer layer subequal to the combined 2 inner layers, or slightly less thick; outer layer of cells in tiers, rather regularly short-rectangular, with two-phase development, the longitudinal walls with well-defined sheet-like thickenings and nodule-like thickenings (4–6 per cell) alternating with walls that are devoid of thickenings (or with very few sporadic, local, non-pigmented, nodular swellings), the transverse walls devoid of thickenings; innermost layer of cells ± tiered, irregularly narrowly to broadly rectangular, with semiannular bands rather narrow, ± irregular, short or infrequently complete, rarely forked and anastomosing to delimit ill-defined, local fenestrae.
Spores 14.9–16.8 µm in diam., the wall yellow-brown, with low, delicate papillae, coalescing to form short ridges that rarely delimit areolae. Elaters rigid, somewhat sinuous, (7.7)8.6–10.1 µm wide, only slightly tapering toward tips, bispiral to tips, the spirals 2.9–3.4 µm wide.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Campbell Island, Auckland Islands, South Island (sea level); Australia: Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland. In the South Island known from one station at Milford Sound (Fiordland). For remarks on reports based on misdeterminations, see Engel and Merrill (2004).
The species is primarily a forest plant throughout its range. The plant from Milford Sound occurred on exposed, moist, vertical cliffs with a dense bryophyte cover at the forest margin.
Comments : This species is the smallest member of sect. Neolepidozia. It is distinguished from Telaranea patentissima by its smaller size, smaller leaf cells (at most 25 µm wide), and less regular arrangement of disc cells, vs. cells 25–40 µm wide in T. patentissima, with a more T. tetrapila -like areolation of rather regular rows and tiers.
The branch leaves have a rather high disc (to 7 cells high) and are often 4-lobed. By contrast, the leaves of the main shoot are often distant, longitudinally inserted, and deeply divided, with widely splayed lobes, often oriented as much as 180° to each other (Fig. 53: 7; Fig. 54: 2). Weaker shoots may have both stem and branch leaves splay-lobed, and lack the flattened, ribbon-like branches (Fig. 53: 1, 2).
