Lepidozia procera Mitt.
Lepidozia procera Mitt. in Hook.f., Bot. Antarc. Voy. 3: 231. pl. 180, f. 1. 1859.
Type: Tasmania, without specific locality, Gunn; Mt. Wellington, Oldfield (non vidi).
Lepidozia breviloba Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 596. 1909.
Type: New Zealand, Great Barrier Is., Kirk (non vidi).
Plants erect, slender and wiry, with strongly ventrally secund branches that are often oriented parallel with one another, pale green, the shoots to 1.5 cm wide (stem to branch extremities). Branching nearly exclusively of Frullania type, closely and regularly pinnate, the primary branches becoming distinctly whip-like, long-flagelliform, microphyllous and rhizoidous; secondary branches rare; branch half-leaf ± symmetric, narrowly ovate, shallowly bilobed; first branch underleaf (2)3–4-lobed, inserted on ventral-lateral side of junction of main axis and branch and aligned with branch underleaves. Ventral-intercalary branching sporadic, leafy. Stems stiff, the cortical cells in 1 layer of somewhat thick-walled cells somewhat larger than the medullary cells; 1–2 subepidermal layers with walls thicker than both epidermis and internal medullary cells, the medullary cells toward stem-middle thick-walled and with trigone-like thickenings. Leaves appressed to stem at least in basal sector, somewhat concave, contiguous to weakly imbricate, 0.35–0.5 mm long and wide at longest and widest points, suberect, ventrally secund particularly when dry, the insertion weakly to distinctly incubous; leaves slightly to rather markedly asymmetric, ± equally or, more often, unequally 4-lobed, divided to ca. 0.3–0.45 (median sinus), the distance from dorsal sinus base to insertion greater than that from ventral sinus to insertion (often markedly so). Lobes parallel to slightly divergent, short-attenuate to acute, entire, the 2 median lobes wider and often slightly longer than the outer lobes, 5–7 cells wide at base; lobes terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2–3(4) cells, the cells of uniseriate row ± isodiametric, thick-walled and with the septum distinctly thickened and swollen; surface of lobes smooth to indistinctly and obscurely papillose. Disc moderately to distinctly asymmetric, subquadrate to deltoid, 17–26 cells high at dorsal sinus, 10–16 cells high at ventral sinus, the margins entire but the septa of marginal cells distinctly thickened and swollen, the dorsal margin slightly to moderately ampliate and broadly curved, the ventral margin straight or slightly curved. Cells of disc-middle evenly thick-walled, 10–13 µm wide × 13–19 µm long, in ± regular longitudinal files; median basal cells larger (up to 2× diam. of cells of second row), in one row; surface of disc smooth. Underleaves often narrowly connate on one side, small, ca. 0.7–0.9× the stem width, ± appressed to slightly spreading, quadrate, symmetrically quadrifid to ca. 0.3–0.4, the lobes abbreviated, only (4)5–6(8) cells long; disc (5)7–9 cells high at median sinus; disc margins entire.
Androecia and gynoecia not seen.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Stewart Island, South Island (at most 200 m), North Island (200–290 m); Australia: Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland. In New Zealand known from Rakiura (Patersons Inlet), Fiordland, Otago, Westland, Western Nelson, Southern North Island, Auckland and Northland EPs.
Within New Zealand the species sporadically occurs terricolous or saxicolous in low-elevation forests in the South Island, and is known from only a few stations in the North Island. It occurs on mossy banks in Nothofagus forests in Fiordland, as well over rock in a creek bed within a podocarp-dominated forest (Lake Gault, south Westland). At Waipoua Forest the species occurred over a layer of soil over a huge streambed boulder in a shaded, humid, steep-sided stream valley within a forest mainly of Agathis australis.
Comments : This is a distinctive species. The primary branches of Lepidozia procera are noteworthy in being strongly ventrally secund and often oriented parallel with one another (Fig. 30: 1, 14). The leaves are closely appressed to the stem (Fig. 30: 1, 4), and, coupled with being ventrally secund, lend the shoots and branches a markedly smooth aspect dorsally. The leaves are shallowly lobed, the two median lobes larger and somewhat longer than the outer lobes (Fig. 30: 5–7). The dorsal margin of the leaf is broadly curved and is longer than the slightly curved or straight ventral margin (Fig. 30: 5–7). The leaf areolation is also distinctive. Disc cells are evenly very thick-walled, and the cells are in longitudinal files (Fig. 30: 9). The septa of marginal cells, especially those of the dorsal margin, are distinctly thickened and swollen (Fig. 30: 11). However, this character is not always fully expressed in suboptimal populations, and several leaves should be carefully examined.
