Lophozia autoica R.M.Schust.
Lophozia autoica R.M.Schust., Nova Hedwigia 15: 479. 1968.
Type: New Zealand, South Is., Otago, Morrison’s Creek, Leith Valley, Dunedin, 200–300 ft., Schuster 48593a.
[Fig. 140; Fig. 146: 3, oil-bodies, p. 672]
Plants loosely creeping to ascending, slender, often with an etiolated appearance, soft-textured, translucent pure green, the sterile shoots without trace of secondary pigments (♂ at times with brownish to chestnut pigments), mostly to 1.5 mm wide (slender sterile shoots often under 1 mm). Branching sparing, irregular, the branches usually lateral-intercalary from ventral half of leaf axils; Frullania -type branches occasional. Stems soft, slender, the cortical cells not differentiated, thin-walled, the cells similar to or (here and there) slightly larger in diameter than the medullary; medullary cells with all cells similar in diameter, without trace of dorsiventral differentiation, thin-walled, without mycorrhizal hyphae. Rhizoids frequent, long, colorless. Leaves soft-textured, translucent green, on most stems ± squarrose (with lobes often strongly squarrose, often hooked at the tip) from a spreading weakly concave base, remote (often markedly so), succubously oriented, the insertion oblique to subhorizontal; leaves asymmetrically bilobed (sporadically 3–4-lobed) to 0.35–0.4(0.45), the ventral lobe a little larger, the leaves often ovate and typically clearly longer than wide (usually 1.2–1.4× as long as wide), ca. 560–570 µm wide × 700–725 µm long, but some leaves suboblate and slightly wider than long; leaves of some axes, particularly fertile ones, atypical: then 3–4-lobed for 0.3–0.35 their length and from narrowly obtrapezoidal to oblong-obtrapezoidal, rarely one or two bisbifid for 0.4–0.55 the length, then obtrapezoidal; lobes medium to broadly acute, at times sharply so, rarely subacuminate, terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2 cells, the tip cells mostly ± isodiametric, at most slightly longer than wide, the lobe margins entire; sinuses usually crescentic to broadly V-shaped; lamina margins entire, the dorsal usually nearly straight to a little arched, the ventral moderately arched. Cells delicate, thin-walled, trigones ± small, the median cells ± oblong to hexagonal, large, 22–32(35) µm wide × 34–48 µm long; marginal cells of lobes quadrate to oblong, ca. 23–27 µm wide × 26–30(35) µm long; basal cells not or little larger, 24–28(32) µm wide × 36–50(60) µm long; surface striolate-papillose. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1968b) small and numerous, usually 20–45 per cell, appearing almost homogeneous, but formed of minute, equal, non-protuberant, barely visible spherules, the oil-bodies mostly spherical to short-ellipsoidal, ca. 2.8–3.2 × 3.6–4 µm to 3.5–4.5 × 4–4.8 µm, a few fusiform to narrowly ellipsoidal, 3–3.5 × 6.5–8 µm, rarely to 4.5 × 9.5 µm. Oil-bodies (Glenny 9116) hyaline but dull, 6–10(15) per middle of lobe base, inconspicuously and indistinctly finely granular, with a cloudy appearance, the outer membrane firm, the oil-bodies globose to irregularly ovoid to elliptic. Underleaves present but reduced and very inconspicuous, consisting of a cluster of cells irregular in form, in the most reduced form comprised of 2 cells + 2 slime papillae, the underleaves occasionally present on some vigorous shoots and linear to linear-lanceolate, 1–2 cells wide and 2–5 cells long, the shoots with polymorphous, 3–4-lobed leaves sometimes with larger, lingulate underleaves. Asexual reproduction by gemmae, the gemmae greenish, subquadrate to polyhedral, with thickened, somewhat projecting angles, 1–2-celled, ca. 16–18.5 × 16–20 µm to 16–22 × 20–22 µm to 24 × 25 µm.
Uniformly autoecious. Androecia often weakly brownish to chestnut pigmented, even when remainder of plant is pure green, ± spicate, the position variable: from axils of subfloral bracts (often) or on branches arising from a leading shoot that also gives rise to gynoecial branches, or intercalary on main stems, or on subfloral innovations arising from beneath the gynoecium; bracts in 5–8 pairs, smaller than leaves, becoming remote to subcontiguous, strongly asymmetrically bilobed, with the ventral lobe spreading to squarrose, the dorsal lobe quite abbreviated, erect, the bract base ventricose; dorsal margin usually with a slender spur or cilium, often inflexed and hidden; antheridia 1 per bract, the stalk uniseriate. Gynoecia terminal on leading shoots or on elongated to somewhat abbreviated lateral-intercalary leafy branches, at times with 1–3 subfloral innovations; bracts very variable in size and form, suberect to widely spreading or even with squarrose lobes, free from each other, 3–4-lobed to ca. 0.35, subquadrate to subquadrate-obtrapezoidal, never clearly wider than long, not or weakly crispate; lobes with margins often recurved, at least toward the base, the lobes then adaxially sulcate, sharp, the apices angular to cuspidate, terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2 moderately elongate cells, the lobe margins usually entire, at times with 1–several accessory small teeth toward base; lamina margins occasionally with a few teeth, occasionally on each side with a lacinia; bracteoles free but very closely juxtaposed to bract on one side, variable, irregularly ovate-lanceolate and unlobed to obovate and bilobed, in either case in distal half with several cilia and laciniae, or ciliate-dentate, the lobes becoming ciliiform distally. Perianth fusiform to cylindrical-obovoid to obovoid to broadly clavate, pluriplicate in at least the distal 0.25, contracted at the mouth; mouth fringed with 2–3 tiers of strongly elongated, somewhat thick-walled cells, crenulate-dentate with projecting cells whose distal 0.3–0.5 are free, the mouth with scattered, local areas with elongated cells that are free to their base and thus locally setulose-ciliolate, the free or nearly free cells tapering, acute to acuminate, strongly elongated, mostly 60–75(80) µm long × 13–15.5 µm wide at base, some up to 85 × 16–18 µm, the apices rather thick-walled; cells below apex rapidly becoming short-oblong and more thin-walled with weak concave-sided trigones.
Sporophyte unknown.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (930–1310 m), North Island (1230 m). Known only from Otago (Dunedin), Canterbury (Arthur’s Pass), Westland (Mt. Brown, Otira River) and Volcanic Plateau (Mt. Ruapehu) EPs.
The species was found in a protected niche over humus on a bank along a small stream in a forest dominated by Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides at ca. 1230 m along the Blyth Track (Tongariro Natl. Park, Wellington). While Schuster (2002a, p. 258) keys this species as one of the “Forest zone,” we have discovered that the plant has a broader ecological range. For example, it occurs in penalpine scrub on a steep-sided slope of the Upper Twin Creek Valley (Arthur’s Pass, 930 m). Also over soil at the side of a rill at 1210–1310 m in a mosaic of alpine tussock grass, rills and small rocky outcrops (Otira Valley Track, Arthur’s Pass), and on Mt. Brown (central Westland, 1080 m) in a south-facing ditch under shrubland of Hebe subalpina, Dracophyllum longifolium, D. rosmarinifolium, Chionochloa rubra and Celmisia armstrongii, with Bazzania involuta, Breutelia elongata, Clasmatocolea sp., Plagiochila retrospectans, Ptychomnion aciculare and Riccardia pennata. The type occurred admixed with Trichocolea mollissima, Balantiopsis sp., Haplomitrium gibbsiae and Heteroscyphus fissistipulus (Schuster, 1968b).
Comments : The species is often fertile, and in our experience mostly paroecious (Fig. 140: 1), although not exclusively so. The leaves are frequently distant, lending a rather “etiolated” appearance to the plants (Fig. 140: 2). Leaves are concave, with incurved to “claw-like” lobe tips, and the tip cells of the lobes are never elongated (Fig. 140: 3). The species superficially appears similar to Lophozia multicuspidata in the general leaf form and shape, including lobes that terminate in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2 cells. Lophozia autoica differs from that species in the striate-papillose leaf surface, the isodiametric tip cell of the lobe (or at most slightly longer than wide), the frequent presence of gemmae and the uniseriate antheridial stalks vs. the smooth surface, the sharp lobe apices with the tip cell distinctly longer than wide (to 3:1), the lack of gemmae and the biseriate antheridial stalks, at least above.
