Flora of New Zealand Series

Lepidozia beckettiana Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 593. 1909. 

Lectotype (fide Engel and Merrill, 2004): New Zealand, South Is., Westland, Kellys Ra., 30 Jan. 1903, Beckett “ 4310” – c. per. (G!). Isolectotype: (Beckett 363, CHR 585842 ex herb. Beckett!).

Leaf and half-leaf margins devoid of teeth; leaf lobes 4 cells wide at base, the cells in basal portion of lobe elongate (ca. 2:1); margins of disc and lobe typically minutely denticulate by protruding end walls of the marginal cells.

Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Stewart Island, South Island (10–670[1520] m), North Island (610–1320 m); for comments on extraterritorial records see Engel and Merrill (2004). Known from Fiordland, Westland, Canterbury (near Main Divide), Western Nelson, Southern North Island, Volcanic Plateau, Taranaki and Gisborne EPs.

A rather widespread species on South and North islands, occurring in wet, rich lower- to upper-elevation forests, where often on rotted logs, particularly when largely bryophyte-covered. It occurs, for example, in rich, mixed Nothofagus forests with a tree-fern understory (Tutoko River, Fiordland); in Prumnopitys taxifolia – Podocarpus flood-plain forests (Waiho River area, Westland); in Nothofagus menziesii – Dacrydium cupressinum – Podocarpus forests along the Tiropahi River (Western Nelson); and in N. menziesii – Raukawa simplex – Podocarpus totara – Dracophyllum forests (Panekiri Ra., Urewera Natl. Park). It only sporadically inhabits soil or humus of the forest floor, or moist banks, etc.

The species is rarely penalpine. It was recently found at 1520 m on Mt. Arthur (Western Nelson) in communities of penalpine cushion vegetation, rocky herbfields, and Dracophyllum, where it occurred over decaying blades at the base of a grass immediately adjacent to a small, stagnant pool.