Jamesoniella kirkii Steph.
Jamesoniella kirkii Steph., Hedwigia 34: 47. 1895.
Type: New Zealand, North Is., Bay of Islands, Kirk 75 (fide Grolle, 1971a).
Jamesoniella scolopendrina Berggr., New Zealand Hepat. 16. f. 12. 1898. Lectotype (fide Grolle, 1971a): New Zealand, South Is., Bealey River, 600 m, Berggren 2840 (LD, non vidi).
Jamesoniella allisonii E.A.Hodgs., Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand, Bot. 3: 81. 1965.
Holotype: New Zealand, South Is., Central Otago, above Queenstown, ca. 1200 ft., Allison H6301 (herb. Hodgson no. 11592) (MPN, non vidi); isotype: (CHR ex herb. Allison!).
[Plate 14A; Fig. 155; Fig. 158: 1, oil-bodies, p. 724]
Plants procumbent, adhering to substrate, the shoot tips slightly ascending, light green to yellow-brown, occasionally reddish tinged, occasionally red throughout in exposed sites, to 5 cm long, to 4 mm wide. Stems becoming brownish, the cortex poorly differentiated, the cortical cells slightly smaller, with ± evenly thickened walls, often ± yellowish brown; medullary cells with ± strongly and unevenly thickened walls. Rhizoids from ventral side of stem, extending almost to shoot apex. Branching rather frequent, pseudo-dichotomous, of terminal, Frullania type, occasionally ventral-intercalary; stolons rarely present, with shell-like leaves. Leaves distinctly dorsally assurgent (stiffly and more strongly so when dry), in ventral view the shoots strongly convex, the leaves in ventral aspect appearing precisely shingled in a smooth plane (plano-distichous), their ventral margins parallel and aligned nearly at right angles to the axis, the dorsal margins vertically oriented (seen on edge in dorsal view) and distinctly and quite regularly undulate, the leaf insertion ± longitudinal, then very obliquely succubous, not recurved at ventral end; leaves typically short-elliptic, less often oblong-ovate or broadly ovate, 1500–1900 µm wide, 1700–1950 µm long, entire, subcanaliculate, sometimes subcucullate toward the apex, the ventral margin narrowly inflexed; apex broadly rounded to subacute, at times apiculate; dorsal margin broadly arched to ± straight distally and broadened and weakly ampliate below, short-decurrent; ventral margin weakly arched, abruptly contracted at extreme base, the ventral leaf bases overlapping but not completely hiding the stem. Cells not porose, with thin walls, the trigones coarsely knot-like and in part confluent; cells of upper median portion of leaf hexagonal, 19–22 µm wide × 20–30 µm long; cells toward the median-leaf base gradually somewhat broadened and more strongly elongated, with knot-like trigones; leaves with an indistinct border formed by 1–2 rows of somewhat smaller and more evenly thick-walled cells; surface smooth, the basal leaf cells finely papillose. Oil-bodies smokey grey, 5–8(10) cell in per cell in median-upper sector of leaf, 8–10 per cell at leaf base, 3–5 per cell at leaf margin, moderately botryoidal, globose and 5.5–7 µm in diam. or elliptic and 4.5–7 × 13–16 µm, some 8 × 9 µm. Underleaves inconspicuous, present toward shoot apices, caducous below, irregularly filamentous.
Androecia on main shoot or Frullania -type branches, narrower than vegetative portions of shoot, with 2–5 pairs of bracts; bracts strongly saccate in basal portion, winged, the dorsal margin of the bract often decurrent as a narrow abaxial wing (the lobule thus seemingly inserted on the adaxial face of the bract); lobule large, broadly inflexed, the apex acuminate, the free margin entire or with a tooth; antheridia single, the stalk biseriate. Gynoecia mostly innovating; bracts strongly differentiated from leaves, gradually increasing in size toward perianth, those of innermost series the largest, free from one another, deeply concave to cochleariform, often longitudinally plicate, retuse to bifid, the lobe tips sharply apiculate, the bract margins entire or with a few slender or broad-based teeth; bracteole narrowly elliptic, free or united with one of the bracts, nearly as long as the bracts, the apex ending in a sharp apiculus, the margins with a few slender, sharp teeth. Perianth narrowly elliptic-obovate, deeply plicate in the upper 0.65–0.75, strongly contracted to the mouth, the mouth margin lobulate, the lobules densely armed with long, ciliate hairs, the hairs uniseriate, to 20 cells long, the cells not elongate; cells of lobules with evenly thickened walls, those of the perianth proper with well-developed trigones like the leaf cells.
Capsule intensely reddish pigmented, ellipsoidal, the wall 78–85 µm thick, 5–6-stratose; outer layer of cells with radial longitudinal walls with strong, nodular thickenings, the thickenings of adjoining cells frequently in opposing pairs, the transverse walls rarely with an isolated nodular thickening; innermost layer of cells with semiannular bands common, close, wide, nearly always complete, sometimes forked and delimiting local fenestrae.
Spores 15–20 µm in diam., verruculose. Elaters bispiral, 7–8.2 µm wide.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (near sea level to 1000 [1200] m), North Island (40–1300 m). Known from Fiordland, Southland, Otago, Westland, Canterbury, Western Nelson, Marlborough, Sounds–Nelson, Southern North Island, Volcanic Plateau, Gisborne and Auckland EPs.
A forest species that is nearly exclusively corticolous, and is recorded from the trunks of Nothofagus menziesii, N. truncata, Archeria traversii and Weinmannia racemosa. It is found in upper montane forest, particularly on ridges exposed to drying winds, of N. menziesii, N. fusca, W. racemosa and Dracophyllum traversii – A. traversii forests. It is frequently associated with Cuspidatula monodon, at times forming thick, loose mats, at times occurring as scattered, small patches. It may tolerate considerable exposure, present, for example, on bark of small trees that occur with a few scattered shrubs and grasses on otherwise exposed bare rock on the slopes of the Franz Josef Glacier Valley (off Roberts Point Track, SW of Mt. Gunn, Westland Natl. Park, ca. 510–570 m). It rarely has been collected from rock or from rotten logs. Species found with Jamesoniella kirkii are Bunodophoron scrobiculatum, Calyptopogon mnioides, Frullania aterrima, Goebeliella cornigera, Herbertus oldfieldianus, Hypnum chrysogaster, Leifidium tenerum, Lepicolea scolopendra, Lepidolaena reticulata, Leptotheca gaudichaudii, Lepyrodon lagurus, Macromitrium longipes, Paraschistochila tuloides, Pseudomarsupidium piliferum and Wijkia extenuata.
Comments : The stiffly upswept leaves (Fig. 155: 3) with distinctly undulate dorsal margins (Fig. 155: 1) and pseudo-dichotomous branching (Fig. 155: 1) make this one of the most unmistakable of New Zealand hepatics. The ventral aspect of the plant also is unusual for the genus in the widely divergent, strictly parallel and tightly appressed arrangement of the leaves (Fig. 155: 2). The leaves are tongue-like, with apices either broadly rounded or minutely apiculate, and the leaf cells have strongly developed, knot-like, often confluent trigones (Fig. 155: 6; Fig. 158: 1).
The relatively rare Cryptochila acinacifolia also has lingulate leaves (Fig. 163: 4) but with non-wavy dorsal margins (Fig. 163: 3) that are 2–3-stratose near the base (Fig. 163: 6), the leaf cells uniformly thick-walled, lacking trigones (Fig. 163: 7), and it is never epiphytic.
