Lepicolea attenuata (Mitt.) Steph.
Sendtnera attenuata Mitt. in Hooker, Bot. Antarc. Voy. 2: 153. pl. 102, f. 2. 1854.
Herbertia attenuata (Mitt.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Plant. 2: 836. 1891.
Lepicolea attenuata (Mitt.) Steph., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 29: 276. 1892.
Type: New Zealand, North Is., Bay of Islands, Hooker (NY!).
Sendtnera quadrifida Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 21: 69. 1889 (1888).
Type: New Zealand, Wairoa Co., high hills at Lake Waikare, 1888, Hill (Colenso a. 1422) (BM![=2]).
Plants stiff and wiry, pale green to golden brown; (20)60–70 mm long, 13–20(40) mm wide; shoots to 1.6 mm wide. Stems lacking paraphyllia. Leaves rigid, obliquely spreading, imbricate, subsymmetrically rectangular to narrowly long-ovate, the lamina often somewhat dilated dorsally; leaves 0.65–0.80 mm wide at level of median sinus, (1.1)1.3–1.6 mm long, quadrifid, the median sinus descending to 0.45–0.7, the marginal pair of sinuses often differing from one another in depth, the lobes acuminate to subcaudate, green throughout, the leaf lobes with uniseriate row 130–215 µm long, the terminal cell 1–5:1, 40–70 mm long, the second and third cells from tip at most 3:1, the fourth cell (when present) normally subquadrate, the segment margins entire; dorsal and ventral margins of lamina broadly curved, subauriculate at base, the marginal cells with swollen, protuberant septa giving a crenulate appearance, the dorsal margin otherwise coarsely ciliate-laciniate, the ventral entire, sporadically with a cilium. Vitta of leaves distinct, in median sector of lamina and extending to level of median sinus, or, less conspicuously, to middle of lobes, but not to the apices; cells of vitta elongate, near the leaf base 20–24 µm wide, 43–55 µm long. Leaf cells with massive trigones, the cells between vitta and margin in median sector of lamina 16–22 µm wide and long; surface of lamina coarsely striate-papillose, of uniseriate row of lobes papillose, of leaf base markedly long-striate. Oil-bodies 3–7 per cell, smooth, colorless, 4 × 4–6 µm, only visible in young leaves, not persisting. Underleaves ± clasping the stem, spreading, often widely so, imbricate, symmetric, the shape as in leaves, quadrifid, the median sinus descending to 0.6–0.8; lobes as in leaves; lamina margins crenulate as in leaves, otherwise entire or repand, sporadically with a cilium. Asexual reproduction by regeneration or by fragmentation of leaves from older parts of stems. Fungal partner absent.
Plants dioecious. Androecia restricted to branches, wider than sterile sectors of branch, terminal but eventually becoming intercalary; bracts in 3–8 pairs, less deeply lobed than leaves, the lamina ventricose; antheridia 1–2 per bract, the stalk and jacket-cells thick-walled. Gynoecia on branches with several, but never numerous, vegetative leaves; bracts of innermost series much larger than branch leaves, subobtrapezoid, quadrifid, the median sinus descending to 0.7–0.8, the lateral pair of sinuses much shallower, the lobes caudate, sulcate at least in basal half, the segment margins sparingly ciliate or entire; lamina margins rather copiously ciliate-laciniate-lobulate; bracteoles of innermost series as in bracts.
Seta to 2.3 mm long, 10–11 cells in diam., with 48 rows of epidermal cells surrounding an inner core of scattered cells similar in size to epidermal cells. Capsule wall 96–106 µm thick, of 6 layers; outer layer of cells subquadrate to short-rectangular, with two-phase type of distribution of thickenings, the radial walls with broad-based nodules that tend to cluster on opposing sides of a radial wall; innermost layer of cells highly irregular in shape, the radial walls with dense nodular thickenings that are sometimes confluent at the base, the walls with semiannular bands sporadic.
Spores 40–44 µm in diam. (including conical projections), brown, aculeate, the surface with fine papillae between the conical projections. Elaters tortuous, 10.6–11 µm wide, bispiral, strongly tapered toward the tips, the tips slender, each with a nonspiral thickening.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (120–1130 m) and North Island (300–1220 m). Known from Fiordland, Westland, Canterbury, Western Nelson, Sounds–Nelson, Southern North Island, Volcanic Plateau, Taranaki, Gisborne, Auckland and Northland EPs. In the South Island not extending much east of the Main Divide. Very common throughout the North Island.
Rather common in forest and scrub (60–1400 m), Lepicolea attenuata is an epiphyte on tree trunks and small to large branches of trees. Recorded on hosts Nothofagus menziesii, N. solandri, Griselinia littoralis, Beilschmiedia tawa, Weinmannia racemosa, Halocarpus biformis, Lepidothamnus intermedius, Dracophyllum longifolium and on twigs of Neomyrtus pedunculatus. It may often be found loosely festooning tree branches, and on several occasions it was found on fallen tree branches, and may be a tree-top species. It also occurs on decaying logs and stumps as well as on boulders. Typical associates are Chandonanthus squarrosus, Cladomnion ericoides, Cuspidatula monodon, Dicnemon calycinum, D. semicryptum, Frullania rostrata, Goebeliella cornigera, Herbertus oldfieldianus, Hymenophyllum armstrongii, Jamesoniella kirkii, Macromitrium longipes, M. microstomum, Paraschistochila pinnatifolia, P. tuloides, Plagiochila circinalis and Weymouthia cochlearifolia.
Comments : The species may be distinguished, even in the field, by the relatively short cells of the leaf lobe apices, the cells other than the terminal cell being only at most 3:1 (Fig. 7: 3). These relatively short cells, at least for the most part, are chlorophyll-bearing and make the distal sector of the leaf lobes green and acuminate rather than hyaline and setaceous as in Lepicolea scolopendra.
