Kurzia calcarata (Steph.) Grolle
Lepidozia calcarata Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 592. 1909. Microlepidozia calcarata (Steph.) R.M.Schust., J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 26: 257. 1963. Kurzia calcarata (Steph.) Grolle, Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 32: 178. 1964 (1963). Lectotype (fide Engel and Merrill, 1996b): New Zealand, without specific locality, 27 Dec. 1885, Kirk 1887, ex herb. Kew (G!).
Type: New Zealand, South Is., Westland Prov., N of Omoeroa River, S of town of Franz Josef, Schuster 67-251.
Leaves deeply divided, to 0.6–0.7(0.85), the disc (2)4–7(8) cells high; lobes lanceolate, often abruptly contracted at base; disc usually with abaxial spur-like processes; branching pinnate from a prostrate runner.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: South Island (50–1420 m), North Island (65–1500 m), Chatham Islands (250 m); Australia: Tasmania (Schuster, 1980a, p. 373), Queensland. In New Zealand known from Fiordland, Southland, Otago, Westland, Western Nelson, Southern North Island (Ruahine and Tararua ranges), Volcanic Plateau, Auckland and Northland EPs.
A helophytic species, growing in full sunlight, over a rather broad altitudinal range. It occurs over waterlogged acidic peaty soil with impeded drainage (pakihi), as well as in boggy areas to 1280 m, at times forming dense tufts among Sphagnum hummocks. For example, it occurs in open Sphagnum – Empodisma minus – Halocarpus biformis – Phyllocladus alpinus moor-like sites (Westland). The type of Kurzia temnomoides was collected in a Sphagnum – Empodisma minus – Halocarpus – Phyllocladus alpinus bog, exposed to the direct sun. At the upper end of its altitudinal range (e.g., at Rainbow Skifield in the St. Arnaud Ra., 1360–1480 m; Mt. Robert Skifield, W end of Lake Rotoiti, 1400–1480 m), plants occur, for example, in mosaics of tussock grass and alpine vegetation along with tarns, rills, rocky outcrops and boulderfields, and in such sites they occur in rills draining the tarns (where it may form large pure masses), at the edges of tarns, at times submerged and at times among Sphagnum. It also occurs under prostrate mats of dead tussock blades, a niche that was notably warmer to the touch at midday. In Urewera Natl. Park, Waikareiti Track, Waipai Swamp (720 m), it occurred at the edge of a Sphagnum mat in a low, open, boggy area with Sphagnum hummocks, Leptospermum scoparium and Dracophyllum subulatum. South of Te Whakapatiki on the Herangi Ra. (S of Kawhia Harbor, ca. 720–750 m) plants occurred on an exposed plateau that includes a cushion bog (dominated by Oreobolus pectinatus and with common associates Cyathodes empetrifolia, Lepidothamnus laxifolius and Baumea tenax) that is surrounded by rocky outcrops, low shrubland (,2 m) in which Leptospermum scoparium, Quintinia serrata and Dracophyllum traversii are prominent, with Sphagnum as ground cover in wetter sites and small trees (,6 m) including Weinmannia. At this site K. calcarata occurred on moist soil with Sphagnum beneath 1 m scrub adjacent to the bog. On the Hauraki Plain and on Chatham Island it is found in Sporodanthus bog. It has been found with Campylopus clavatus, C. introflexus, Eotrichocolea polyacantha, Hygrolembidium rigidum, Lepidozia obtusiloba, Megaceros giganteus, Pseudocephalozia lepidozioides and Telaranea herzogii.
