Anastrophyllum novazelandiae
Anastrophyllum novazelandiae R.M.Schust., Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 34: 282. f. 4. 1966.
Type: New Zealand, South Is., Fiordland Natl. Park, Route Burn track between Earland Falls and Lake Mackenzie, W slope of Humboldt Mtns., upper Hollyford Valley, ca. 4200–4500 ft., Schuster 49471b.
Plants wiry, erect to ascending, yellowish brown to chestnut, locally ± reddish, minute, to 15 mm high, 775 µm wide. Branching irregular or plants unbranched, pseudo-dichotomous, the plants seemingly furcate, the branching apparently exclusively terminal, Frullania type; half-leaf ovate-lanceolate, unlobed. Stems brownish, the cortical cells not or weakly differentiated, brownish, in 1–2(3) layers; medullary cells colorless, firm. Rhizoids very few, scattered. Leaves distant, subcontiguous above, pectinately distichous in orientation, stiffly and obliquely to widely spreading to subsquarrose, not dorsally secund or hardly so, the insertion oblique ventrally but transverse in dorsal 0.3; leaves narrowly to less often broadly ovate to elliptic-ovate, slightly to clearly longer than broad, strongly concave to loosely canaliculate-folded, 220–300 µm wide × 280–330 µm long, bifid to 0.35–0.4; lobes inflexed, acute, subequal to distinctly unequal (the dorsal half of leaf 0.35–0.45 the area of ventral), terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2 cells, the sinus acute; lamina and lobe margins at least in part crenulate by the bluntly projecting anticlinal walls of the marginal cells but otherwise entire; dorsal margin not decurrent, sometimes with a stalked slime papilla or tooth at base. Cells of leaf small, firm, with sinuous walls, with distinct, bulging trigones and irregular intermediate thickenings, the median leaf cells (10)12–14 µm wide × 16–22(24) µm long; basal cells elongated, commonly ca. 2:1, often in longitudinal rows; surface smooth. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1966c) (3)4–9(10) per median and basal cell, 0–1 oil-bodies per marginal lobe cell, 4–8 per intramarginal lobe cell, rather glistening, appearing almost homogeneous (the spherules non-protuberant), spherical to ovoid, very small, 1.2–1.5 × 1.5–2 µm to 2.2 × 3–3.5 µm. Underleaves absent, or present as a uniseriate filament of up to 7(10) cells, less often biseriate (at least in basal portion), terminating in a slime papilla, the ventral merophyte 1 or at most 2 cells wide. Asexual reproduction lacking. Otherwise unknown.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (ca. 1010–1615 m). Known from Fiordland, Otago, Westland and Marlborough EPs. Known from only five collections: from the type, from Mt. Alexander near Caswell Sound, Mt. Shrimpton near Makarora, Branch River and Mt. Richmond, both in Marlborough. On Mt. Richmond it was found with Acrolophozia pectinata, Chandonanthus squarrosus, Cladia aggregata, and Racomitrium crispulum on a dripping rock face at ca. 1615 m. The type material was admixed with Cuspidatula monodon, Metzgeria sp., Pseudomarsupidium piliferum, Frullania sp. and Cephaloziella sp., growing on an exposed, moist crag in the snow tussock zone just above tree line. At the Branch River site, it was found on a greywacke boulder in Festuca novae-zelandiae tussockland on the valley floor, with Andreaea mutabilis, Polytrichum juniperinum, Menegazzia pertransita and Rhizocarpon geographicum. At the Mt. Shrimpton site it occurred on soil on a rock outcrop with Cheilolejeunea albovirens, Ditrichum punctulatum, Gymnomitrion cuspidatum and Notoligotrichum australe. On Mt. Alexander, it was among Plagiochila circinalis but no other habitat information was recorded.
Comments : This poorly known species is sharply distinct from Anastrophyllum schismoides by the minute size of the plants, the presence of terminal, Frullania -type branching, and the widely spreading, ± symmetrically bilobed leaves that are not dorsally falcate-secund, the margins (at least in part) distinctly crenulate by the swollen, projecting radial walls of the marginal cells.
