Flora of New Zealand Series

Kurzia fragilifolia R.M.Schust., J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 48: 364. f. 4. 1980.

Telaranea fragilifolia (R.M.Schust.) J.J.Engel & Merrill, Fieldiana, Bot. 44: 90. 2004. 

Holotype: New Zealand, Little Barrier Is., summit track to Mt. Hauturu, SE of summit of Mt. Herekohu, 1700–1900 ft., Schuster 57896 (F).

Plants delicate, loosely creeping to suberect, pale green, nitid; shoots to 560 µm wide, with leaves. Branching irregularly and remotely branched, with Frullania - and Microlepidozia -type branches and lateral-intercalary branches produced; lateral-intercalary branches at times present nearly to the exclusion of other branch types; ventral-intercalary stolons or flagella rarely present; half-leaf of Frullania -type branch undivided or bilobed, the first branch underleaf undivided, inserted on ventral side of branch at base; ventral half-leaf of Microlepidozia -type branch undivided. Stems slender and delicate, the cortical cells in 8–9 rows, faintly striolate, thin-walled, much larger than the medullary cells, which are in 6–13 rows. Main shoots and branches with 2–3 cortical cells intervening between successive leaves on either side, the leaves on prolonged, slender axes more distant, to 9 cells apart. Leaves remote, rather widely spreading, the insertion transverse, ca. 300–340 µm long, asymmetrically to ± symmetrically 3-lobed almost to the base, the lobe bases (basal tier) biseriate, connate for ca. 0.5 or somewhat less, or the basal cells completely united, with the tier above partly united, forming a disc 1.5 cells high, occasionally with an additional biseriate tier at base of lobes; branch leaves bifid. Lobe tips caducous, at times only the basal cells of the lobes remaining, the lobes subequal to unequal, the dorsal-most lobe then somewhat shorter; lobes gradually tapering from base to apex, ± straight, biseriate at the base (at times with an additional biseriate tier), the intact lobes with a uniseriate row of 4–6 cells; cells of basal tier 24–31 µm wide × 48–60 up to 86–95 µm long, the basal cell of uniseriate row 28–34 × 72–84 µm, the next cell shorter and narrower; terminal cell (in intact lobes) not distinctly shorter than the penultimate cell; lobe cells rather firm-walled, the transverse septa not projecting, the lobe straight-sided or at times weakly constricted at the septa; surface faintly to distinctly striolate. Underleaves trifid, with 1–2 lobes abbreviated, consisting of a uniseriate row of 3–4 cells arising from a geminate base, terminating in a slime papilla.

Dioecious. Androecia not seen. Gynoecial branches (type) very short, all ventral-intercalary in origin.

Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: South Island (45 m), North Island (5–580 m); Australia: Tasmania. In New Zealand known from Westland (Jackson River) and Auckland (Kopuatai Peat Dome, Little Barrier Island) EPs.

The species is known only from three stations in New Zealand. The type (Little Barrier Island) reportedly occurred with material of Lembidium longifolium on shaded, permanently moist rock walls, in transition from Agathis australis forest to Beilschmiedia tawa – Weinmannia forest. Plants from the Cascade Road (South Westland, 45 m) occurred over soil in a protected pocket on a large vertical roadside bank at the margin of mature Nothofagus menziesii forest. The banks are bryophyte covered (dominated by Isotachis sp.) with Fuchsia excorticata at the base of the bank. The plant from Kopuatai Peak Bog (Hauraki Plains, Waikato) occurred in ground cover with Goebelobryum unguiculatum and Riccardia crassa under a Sporadanthus ferrugineus– dominated canopy with Empodisma minus and Leptospermum scoparium present (see de Lange et al., 1999). The Tasmanian collection occurred with Telaranea herzogii in Eucalyptus obliqua wet-sclerophyll forest at 130 m.

Comments : This species is notable for its highly fragile, caducous leaf lobes and presence of lateral-intercalary branches, which in several populations are abundantly produced, to the almost complete exclusion of other branch types.