Flora of New Zealand Series

Lepidozia obtusiloba Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 598. 1909. 

Type: New Zealand, South Is., Helms, Beckett (possible isosyntypes: Beckett 301, Otira Gorge, 11 Feb. 1903, CHR 585840 ex herb. Beckett!; Beckett 348, Otira Gorge, 11 Feb. 1903, CHR 585841 ex herb. Beckett!).

Lepidozia parvitexta Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 598. 1909, syn. fide Engel and Schuster (2001). Lectotype (fide Engel and Schuster, 2001): New Zealand, Jacksons, Goebel (G! – c. sporo.).

[Figs. 31–33; Fig. 34: 4, oil-bodies, p. 220]

Plants typically erect, rather flexuous, with laxly spreading ( var. parvula) to strongly ventrally secund branches that are often parallel with one another, brown to yellow-brown, the shoots small to medium, to 1 cm wide, including branches. Branching nearly exclusively of Frullania type, rather short, closely and regularly 1(2)-pinnate, the primary branches sporadically becoming whip-like, flagelliform and microphyllous; branch half-leaf symmetrical, cordate, 2-lobed to ca. 0.2–0.4; first branch underleaf 2–3(4)-lobed, inserted on ventral-lateral side of juncture of main axis and branch and aligned with underleaves of branch or leaves of main shoot. Ventral-intercalary branching occasional, leafy or long-stoloniform. Leaves rigid, brittle, somewhat concave, imbricate and nearly or completely obscuring stem in dorsal view, 0.65–1 mm long at longest point, 0.5–1.2 mm wide at widest point (0.5–0.7 mm wide × 0.7 mm long in var. parvula), spreading, the insertion narrow to broad, and weakly incubous; leaves distinctly asymmetric, unequally 4(5)-lobed, the leaves divided to ca. 0.45–0.65 (median sinus), the distance from dorsal sinus base to insertion much greater than that from ventral sinus to insertion, the dorsal sinus at times reduced to a mere notch. Lobes acute to subapiculate, the 2 dorsal lobes paired, the 2 ventral lobes widely divergent from the united dorsal lobes; dorsal lobes terminating in several laterally juxtaposed cells or a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2–3(4) cells, the cells of uniseriate row ± isodiametric, thick-walled; dorsal lobes entire, 6–8(10) cells wide at base. Disc distinctly asymmetric, 17–21 cells high at dorsal sinus, 6–10 cells high at ventral sinus, the margins entire, the dorsal margin broadly ampliate, cordate at the base, the ventral subcordate. Cells of ventral margin and lobes ± isodiametric, forming border. Cells of disc-middle thick-walled, often distinctly so, trigones sometimes present, medium and straight-sided to large and bulging, 19–28 µm wide × 24–35(42) µm long; median basal cells enlarged, in a single row; surface smooth to indistinctly striate to distinctly papillose. Oil-bodies ( var. parvula) hyaline, (2)3–4(5) per median disc cell, subglobose to elliptic to fusiform to crescentic, distinctly botryoidal, the spherules protruding beyond membrane. Chloroplasts tiny. Underleaves widely spreading to squarrose, symmetrically 4-fid to ca. 0.4–0.55 (median sinus), the lobes plane to slightly ventrally sulcate, the sinus bases plane to slightly reflexed, the lobes short-attenuate, entire, blunt at the tip and terminating in several laterally juxtaposed cells, or with a uniseriate row of 2–3 cells; disc 7–10 cells high at median sinus, the margins parallel, plane, subcordate at base, entire or with a blunt tooth.

Plants dioecious. Androecia on inconspicuous, short, determinate, tightly spicate, often cernuous ventral-intercalary branches from main shoot; bracts ventricose-cucullate, 2–3-lobed to ca. 0.2–0.3, the lobes acute, often apiculate; antheridial stalk biseriate. Gynoecia on abbreviated ventral-intercalary branches issuing from main stem; bracts of innermost series deeply concave, broadly ovate to suborbicular; apices with 4 abbreviated lobes basically smooth and only exceptionally with a crenulation, the lobe summit composed of 2 or more laterally juxtaposed cells, with each lobe terminating in a slime papilla, the lobes at times obsolete, with each represented solely by a slime papilla mounted on 2 laterally juxtaposed cells that project slightly more than neighboring cells; lamina margin bordered by thin-walled cells of variable shape and orientation, some hardly longer than wide, others ± rhomboidal, the apical or free end of marginal cells usually only sporadically divergent and forming a crenulation, the margins basically smooth except for sporadic crenulations or a several-celled tooth, or, occasionally, the margin crenulate-denticulate by variously projecting cells; 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 gradually narrowing toward the strongly contracted, shallowly 3-lobed mouth; mouth cells laterally fused to the summit or nearly so, the mouth thus rather regularly crenulate.

Seta with 16 rows of outer cells surrounding an inner core of ca. 60 much smaller cells. Capsule long-ellipsoidal, the wall 46–48 µm thick, of 4–5 layers; outer layer of cells with two-phase development, the longitudinal walls with sinuous, sheet-like thickenings and several large nodules and spines alternating with walls that are devoid of thickenings, the transverse walls usually devoid of thickenings or sporadically with an isolated nodule; innermost layer of cells ± tiered, narrowly rectangular, semiannular bands common, close and numerous, sometimes incomplete.

Spores 13.5–14.9 µm in diam., the wall brown, thin, with dense, sharply defined, close papillae and short-vermiculate markings. Elaters rigid, nontortuous, 9.6–10.1 µm wide, slightly tapering toward tips, bispiral, the spirals 3.4 µm wide.

Comments : The typical form of the species is distinctive because of brownish pigmentation and erect shoots with distinctly ventrally secund branches (Fig. 31: 8). The species is allied to Lepidozia ornata, but differs in the lack of accessory ornamentation, the broadly acute, united dorsal lobes with a shallow dorsal sinus (in L. ornata the lobes are narrowly acute to attenuate and narrowing to a sharp apex), and the essentially plane and unornamented underleaves. Also, the depth of the median sinus tends not to be as great as in L. ornata, and the ventral lobes tend to be broader than in that species. The underleaf lobes are often bluntly rounded at the summit (Fig. 31: 10), giving rise to the name.

The species has two varieties, separable as follows: