Lepidozia spinosissima (Hook.f. & Taylor) Mitt.
Sendtnera spinosissima Hook.f. & Taylor in Taylor, London J. Bot. 5: 373. 1846.
Lepidozia spinosissima (Hook.f. & Taylor) Mitt. in Hook.f., Bot. Antarc. Voy. 2: 146. 1854.
Herbertia spinosissima (Hook.f. & Taylor) Trevis., Mem. Reale Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett. III, 4: 397. 1877.
Type: New Zealand, Edgerley (non vidi).
Lepidozia longifissa Steph., Sp. Hepat. 6: 364. 1922.
Type: New Zealand, Zürn (non vidi).
[Plate 6A, C; Fig. 29; Fig. 34: 1, oil-bodies, p. 220]
Plants erect, rigid, with somewhat ventrally secund spinescent branches, light green to yellow-brown, the shoots to 3.2 cm wide, including branches. Branching mostly of Frullania type, consistently 2-pinnate (rarely 3-pinnate), the branches whip-like, occasionally becoming flagelliform, the leaves like those of main shoot except smaller; branch half-leaf 2-lobed or sporadically unlobed; first branch underleaf 2–3(4)-lobed, inserted on ventral-lateral side of main axis in similar plane to leaves of the main shoot. Acromastigum -type branches (?)occasional. Ventral-intercalary branching occasional. Stems rigid, the cortical cells in 1 layer of thick-walled cells; medullary cells thick-walled, gradually becoming larger in diameter toward stem-middle. Leaves rigid, plane or feebly concave, approximate, 0.7–1 mm long at longest point, 0.8–1.3(1.5) mm wide at widest point, stiffly patent, the insertion narrow, transverse; leaves slightly asymmetric, subequally deeply 4(5)-lobed, divided to ca. 0.7–0.9, the lobes widely divergent, the distance from dorsal sinus-base to insertion not much greater than that from ventral sinus to insertion, the sinuses gradually becoming deeper ventrally. Lobes narrowly and gradually attenuate, entire, 6–8(10) cells wide at base, terminating in a uniseriate row of (6)7–12 cells; cells of uniseriate row thick-walled, ± isodiametric to slightly longer than wide. Disc moderately asymmetric, 7–9 cells high at dorsal sinus, 3–6 cells high at ventral sinus, the margins entire, the dorsal margin straight to slightly curved. Cells of disc-middle thick-walled, trigones medium and straight-sided, isodiametric to longitudinally elongate along the lobe axis (the leaves thus subvittate), (15)18–27(32) × 26–35 µm; surface smooth. Oil-bodies in all leaf cells including uniseriate row, occupying a conspicuous portion of cell lumen, hyaline, (3)4–6 per median disc cell, moderately botryoidal, with age the spherules coalescing and the oil-bodies becoming coarsely botryoidal, elliptic to short- to long-fusiform to at times linear, some subglobose, 4 × 8 µm to 3.5–4 × 10–13 µm, spherical ones 4–5 µm in diam.; basal cells with same number per cell but larger and more coarsely botryoidal, up to 16 × 6 µm. Underleaves widely spreading, symmetrically 4-fid to ca. 0.7–0.9, the lobes ± parallel to slightly divergent, filiform-attenuate, usually entire, rarely with a cilium toward base; disc 3–6 cells high at median sinus, the disc margins entire.
Androecia on inconspicuous, short, determinate, tightly spicate, cernuous, ventral-intercalary branches from main stem as well as primary and secondary branches or terminating on such branches; bracts ventricose-cucullate, 2-lobed to ca. 0.3–0.5, the lobes apiculate to short-acuminate; antheridial stalk biseriate. Gynoecia rarely produced, on abbreviated ventral-intercalary branches issuing from main stem; bracts of innermost series deeply concave, narrowly ovate to subelliptic, shallowly and irregularly 3–4-lobed, the lobes acute to acuminate, the lobe tips composed of a uniseriate row of 2 cells or a single cell or several laterally juxtaposed cells; lamina margins composed of narrowly elongate cells somewhat irregular in shape, the cells of median and basal portion of margin not projecting, the margin distally with cells often divergent and forming a crenulation and (sporadically) the margin with a few small teeth; bracteole similar in size and form. Perianth long and prominent, slenderly cylindrical-fusiform, terete below, obscurely trigonous above, distinctly and deeply 3-plicate toward mouth, the perianth narrowing toward the contracted, shallowly lobulate mouth, the mouth crenulate-denticulate, the teeth composed of a single cell or a uniseriate row of at most 3 cells.
Sporophyte not seen.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Stewart Island, South Island (30–300 m), North Island (200–610 m), Chatham Islands. It occurs in the western, higher rainfall parts of the country, in Fiordland, Westland, Western Nelson, Southern North Island, Taranaki, Auckland and Northland EPs.
A species of dense, wet, rich, low- to middle-elevation forests (typically sea level to 365 m) dominated by a variety of canopy species such as Weinmannia racemosa, W. silvicola, Metrosideros umbellata, Nothofagus menziesii, N. truncata and N. solandri. It typically occurs over decaying organic matter, such as on the forest floor among leaf litter and to a lesser extent on old logs. When terricolous, it occurs in particularly humid niches, such as damp hollows, stream banks, moist, shaded, humus-covered banks and boggy areas. It also may occur as a component of dense bryophyte cover of vertical, dripping cliffs, such as those along the sea-level track to Bowen Falls at Milford Sound, and may extend as high as 940 m on Mt. Te Aroha (North Island), where it is on vertical cliff faces in a forest dominated by Nothofagus menziesii and Griselinia littoralis. Also known from the summit area of “Little Moehau” (Coromandel Forest Park, ca. 850 m) on soil deep in a protected pocket of a ledge of a large rocky outcrop in an area of exposed bedrock, with tufts of vegetation in protected pockets and crevices, and with windswept, dense scrub at the base, including Leptospermum scoparium, Dracophyllum recurvum and Phyllocladus alpinus. Accompanying species are: Acromastigum colensoanum, Balantiopsis diplophylla, Bazzania adnexa, B. monilinervis, B. nitida, Categonium nitens, Distichophyllum pulchellum, Heteroscyphus coalitis, Hymenophyton flabellatum, Hypnodendron menziesii, Hypnum chrysogaster, Kurzia hippuroides, Lepidozia hirta, L. kirkii, Leucobryum candidum, Metzgeria leptoneura, Plagiochila retrospectans, Pyrrhobryum mnioides, Schistochila balfouriana, S. glaucescens, S. nobilis, Temnoma pulchellum, Trichocolea mollissima, Tylimanthus saccatus, T. tenellus and Zoopsis argentea.
Comments : Lepidozia spinosissima is one of the most distinctive New Zealand species of the genus. The erect, wiry plants with stiffly spreading, ventrally secund, spinescent branches, and the distant, rigid, stiffly patent, transversely inserted, deeply and symmetrically divided leaves are immediately recognizable.
