Eotrichocolea polyacantha (Hook.f. & Taylor) R.M.Schust.
Jungermannia polyacantha Hook.f. & Taylor, London J. Bot. 3: 390. 1844.
Trichocolea polyacantha (Hook.f. & Taylor) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees, Syn. Hepat. 238. 1845.
Eotrichocolea polyacantha (Hook.f. & Taylor) R.M.Schust., J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 26: 252. 1963.
Type: Auckland Is., Hooker.
[Plate 4A; Fig. 24: 4, oil-bodies, p. 178]
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Auckland Islands, Campbell Island (60 m), Stewart Island (330–530 m), South Island (530–1370 m), North Island (1240 m); Australia: Tasmania. In New Zealand known from Southland (Eyre Mtns.), Westland, Western Nelson (Stockton) and Volcanic Plateau EPs.
On Stewart Island the species apparently does not occur below 330 m. On Mt. Rakeahua (track to summit, 500 m) plants occurred in a moderate terrace with mosaic communities consisting of penalpine cushion vegetation, prostrate Leptospermum scoparium and Olearia colensoi to 1 m tall. At this site the species grew scattered and in small tufts in a mound of bryophytes consisting of Acromastigum and Bazzania under a canopy of 1 m tall L. scoparium. Also at the summit of Pryse Peak (330–340 m), in open forest in a plateau area with vegetation that includes stunted Dacrydium cupressinum, Podocarpus hallii, Olearia colensoi, Gahnia, Blechnum and bryophyte cushions on the forest floor. Here the species grew on a raised mound, atypically forming a ± pure colony and loose cushion under a canopy of Gahnia.
In Fiordland the species occurs in the transition from Nothofagus menziesii forest to the alpine. In Westland growing through litter and other bryophytes, in fault ditches, sinkholes, and constantly damp south-facing hillslopes in penalpine tussockland (of Chionochloa pallens or C. australis) and Olearia colensoi shrublands; with Bazzania adnexa, Blepharidophyllum vertebrale, Cryptochila pseudocclusa, Dicranoloma obesifolium, Distichophyllum pulchellum, Gackstroemia alpina, Heteroscyphus mononuculus, Hymenophyllum multifidum, Lepidozia ornata, Marsupidium surculosum, Megaceros giganteus, Metahygrobiella drucei and Schistochila monticola. Near the summit of Haast Pass (530 m) occurring scattered through other bryophytes (including Temnoma, Triandrophyllum, Chiloscyphus, Lepidozia) on a wet cliff under Nothofagus forest at the roadside. In the North Island under low Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides forest with steep, moist, peaty, mossy banks in valley of small side stream below small waterfall at ca. 1200 m (Mangawhero River, off Ohakune Mtn. Road, Tongariro Natl. Park).
The species has a scattered distribution, but because plants for the most part occur sparing and isolated, and hence easily overlooked, it probably will eventually be found to be less rare.
Comments : Eotrichocolea has a distinctive aspect. Plants are small and prickly in appearance and typically 1-pinnate. The frequent occurrence as isolated or sparingly tufted plants is notable, and shoots vary from closely procumbent and with the flagelliform branch tips geotropic and “rooting” in the substrate to suberect. The combination of large and fleshy main shoot and much narrower terminal branches that are cernuous and flagelliform distally is also distinctive. Antheridial stalks are biseriate and not uniseriate as stated in Schuster (2000a).
The species most closely resembles Trichotemnoma corrugatum, but with narrower shoots, stems with paraphyllia, leaves remote and weakly incubous (not succubous as in T. corrugatum).
