Lophozia nivicola R.M.Schust.
Lophozia nivicola R.M.Schust., Nova Hedwigia 15: 477. 1968.
Type: New Zealand, South Is., Mt. Brewster, NE of Haast River, 4700 ft., Schuster 67-455c.
Plants green, becoming whitish with age, the ♂ bracts tinged with reddish brown, shoots small, to 1.5 mm wide, 12 mm long. Branching sporadic, the branches exclusively lateral-intercalary; stolons lacking. Stems with cortex undifferentiated; medullary cells undifferentiated, ± uniform and lacking mycorrhizal hyphae. Leaves subvertical to subhorizontal, remote below, on fertile shoots usually dense and crowded distally, subvertical to vertical, erect-spreading and lobes ± spreading; leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, slightly asymmetric, bilobed to 0.35–0.4 (often a few trilobed on fertile shoots), 720–880 µm wide × 1075–1225 µm long; lobes cuspidate, always very sharp, terminating in 1–2 elongated cells, the lobe margins entire; sinus V-shaped and usually with a rounded base, not gibbose; lamina margins arched, the ventral usually more strongly so, typically entire but sporadically with a tooth. Cells with walls thin, with trigones distinct, mostly concave-sided, the median cells (26)28–38(42) µm wide × 35–48(52) µm long; apical cells large, 36–48 × 30–38(42) µm; surface faintly papillose. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1968b) colorless, usually 16–25 per cell, finely granular, ellipsoidal to fusiform, 4–5 × 6 to 5–5.5 × 7–10 µm, a few to 6 × 7–8 µm. Underleaves lacking on sterile shoots. Asexual reproduction by gemmae, the gemmae at least sporadically present, greenish, 1-celled, polygonal.
Heteroecious: autoecious and (frequently) paroecious. Androecia with bracts often ± brownish red, in (1)2–3 pairs, ventricose at dorsal base; antheridia 1 per bract, the stalk uniseriate. Gynoecia with bracts variable, always strongly spinose-dentate (the teeth distinct even on 2–3 pairs of subfloral leaves); bracts of innermost series mostly subquadrate, 3–4(5)-lobed to 0.35–0.45, the lobe apices sharply cuspidate, the tip cell 30–32 × 110–125 µm, the margins conspicuously spinose-dentate; lamina margins spinose-dentate; bracteole free or essentially so, oblong to obcuneate, usually bifid to 0.3–0.45, dentate-like bracts. Perianth cylindrical, rather shallowly plicate distally, moderately contracted toward the mouth, the mouth lobulate, the lobules crenulate-denticulate with elongate sharp cells that are thick-walled and free at their tips or free for their entire length, the longer cells 24–25 × 80–108 µm; perianth surface below mouth occasionally subhispid or tuberculate with isolated protruding cell tips.
Sporophyte unknown.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (1435 m), known only from the type. The type is from the penalpine tussock zone mixed with Austrolophozia paradoxa, “ Riccardia mammillosa,” Pachyschistochila altissima, Haplomitrium gibbsiae, Lophozia autoica and Metzgeria atrichoneura (Schuster, 1968b). The type is the only collection cited in the literature (see Schuster, 2002a, p. 263).
Comments : Schuster (2002a, p. 266) remarked Lophozia nivicola, L. autoica, L. subalpina and L. androgyna of Tasmania formed a “difficult complex” and “of these taxa, L. nivicola and L. subalpina appear to stand apart because leaf lobes tend to be clearly cuspidate…with lobe tips formed by elongated, sharp cells.” See Schuster (2002a, figs. 307, 308) for illustrations.
