Telaranea hodgsoniae J.J.Engel & G.L.Merr.
Telaranea hodgsoniae J.J.Engel & Merrill, Phytologia 79: 251. June 1996 (1995).
Holotype: New Zealand, South Is., Canterbury Prov., Peel Forest, ca. 1500 ft., Child H2084 – c. ♂ (F); isotype: (CHR).
Plants rather stiff and firm, prostrate, in compact mats, glaucescent, whitish green, the surface rather dull and water-repellent, subnitid when dry; plants ± stenotypic in stature, small, to 0.6 cm wide, including branches. Branching irregularly to rather regularly 1-pinnate, the branches of the Frullania type, short; branch half-leaf 2-lobed, linear-rectangular, the lobes parallel to weakly diverging; first branch underleaf undivided, subulate, inserted on ventral side of branch at juncture of branch and main axis. Ventral-intercalary branches sporadic, leafy, becoming leading shoots. Stems with cortical cells distinctly differentiated, thin-walled, in 13 rows; cortical cells in section much larger than the numerous (ca. 52) medullary cells. Leaves on main shoot rigid, obliquely spreading, rather closely imbricate, moderately convex (especially when dry), the insertion distinctly incubous; leaves 315–350(420) µm wide × 350–525 µm long, subsymmetric, (3)4-lobed to 0.4–0.5, the lobes much shorter than the disc. Lobes narrowly acute, 2–3(4) cells wide at extreme base, terminating in a short uniseriate row of 2–3 cells; lobe cells short, ± isodiametric to short-rectangular, bulging, moderately thick-walled, the cell walls weakly thickened in the corners but the septa not swollen and projecting; surface as in disc. Disc symmetric, subquadrate, 4–5 cells high (from median sinus base to leaf base), 8(9) cells wide in both distal and basal portion; cells of margins often bulging. Cells of disc evenly and moderately thick-walled and firm, trigones minute, the cells ± isodiametric, those in median sector 38–50(55) µm wide × 43–62(70) µm long, the cells in ± regular longitudinal rows, but somewhat offset transversely; surface with a hazy, granular appearance. Underleaves much smaller than leaves, ca. 1.3× stem width, patent to strongly spreading, distant, plane, 4-lobed to 0.5–0.6, the lobes straight, consisting of a uniseriate row of 3(4) short cells (the lobes 2 cells wide at extreme base) terminating in a slime papilla; disc subquadrate to weakly cuneate, 3 cells high (median sinus), the cells ± regularly arranged, the disc 8 cells wide, the cells in distal tier sporadically secondarily divided to form rhizoid initials; margins entire, usually straight.
Asexual reproduction lacking.
Plants apparently dioecious. Androecia on short, abbreviated, ventral-intercalary branches from leading shoots or from flagelliform branches; bracts closely imbricate, dorsally assurgent, deeply concave, 2-lobed, each lobe terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2–3 not to hardly elongated cells; lamina cells irregular in shape and arrangement, the dorsal lamina margin feebly dilated, feebly and irregularly crenulate, no slime papillae seen; bracts monandrous; antheridial stalk uniseriate; bracteolar antheridia absent. Gynoecia not seen.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Auckland Islands, South Island (30–1390 m), North Island (850 m). Known from Otago (Dunedin), Westland (Nelson Lakes Natl. Park) and Southern North Island (Wellington, Tararua Ra.) EPs.
In the South Island known only from scattered sites and in the North Island only from the extreme southern sector (Tararua Ra.). It is apparently a forest species and may cover many square meters on steep, shaded, silty, damp banks in, for example, Leptospermum scoparium or Melicytus ramiflorus forest (Otago) or Nothofagus fusca – N. solandri forest (Nelson Lakes Natl. Park).
Comments : The plant resembles a diminutive Telaranea tetrapila. The parallel-sided leaf disc (Fig. 58: 1, 2) is reminiscent of the var. roseana of that species, being only 8 cells wide throughout, although only 4–5 cells high (Fig. 58: 2). However, the cells appear small and firm-walled, and the lobes are rather stout and stubby, and not attenuate. The plants are rather uniform in size, small and not more than 0.6 cm wide, including the branches.
Plants of Telaranea hodgsoniae often appear somewhat dull under the dissecting microscope, but are never glaucous as in T. tuberifera. Under the compound microscope, the cells have a hazy, granular appearance, rather like frosted glass.
