Kurzia compacta (Steph.) Grolle
Lepidozia compacta Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 592. 1909.
Microlepidozia compacta (Steph.) R.M.Schust., J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 26: 257. 1963.
Kurzia compacta (Steph.) Grolle, Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 32: 178. 1964 (1963).
Type: New Zealand, Lauterbach.
[Fig. 85: 1, oil-bodies, p. 394]
Plants clearly anisophyllous, vigorous, rigid, erect and becoming semidendroid, green to olive-green to reddish brown toward the base, shoots to 1.5 cm wide, including branches. Branching of the short, erect, leafy, green shoots somewhat irregularly to regularly and compactly 1–2-pinnate (Frullania and Microlepidozia types), the branches dorsally ascending, the erect shoots typically originating as ventral-intercalary branches from a leafless (or microphyllous) reddish brown stolon, both stolons and erect leafy shoots also bearing brownish, geotropic, microphyllous stolons; branch half-leaf 2-lobed to ca. 0.75, the lobes occasionally sparingly toothed, the disc margins on each side with 1–2 spinose teeth or a lobuliform process; first underleaf of Frullania -type branch (2)3-lobed, inserted on ventral-lateral side of branch base and aligned with underleaves of branch; branch leaves 4-lobed. Ventral-intercalary branches rather common (the leafy shoots being primarily intercalary in origin), leafy or stoloniform. Stems with cortical cells thick-walled but large and pellucid, in ca. 12 rows, larger than the hyaline, leptodermous medullary cells; cortical cells 4–5 intervening between successive leaves on each side of stem. Leaves markedly rigid, moderately concave, approximate to imbricate, ca. 300 × 350–450 µm, the lobes gradually becoming suberect from a spreading disc, the insertion transverse; leaves symmetric, broader than long, equally 4-lobed to ca. 0.65. Lobes slenderly and evenly attenuate, entire or with 1–2 spinose marginal teeth, the median lobes (4)5–7 cells wide at base, the lateral lobes 4–5 cells wide at base, terminating in a uniseriate row of 2–3 cells; cells of uniseriate row typically broader than the cells beneath, often elongate, the terminal cell tapering to a point. Disc (3)4–5(6) cells high, one or both margins with 1(2–5) spinose, erect to spreading teeth, the teeth commonly 2–3 cells long; spines in sinus bases lacking (rarely with marginal teeth at base of lobes); abaxial face of disc without accessory armature. Cells of disc-middle evenly thick-walled, quadrate to subrectangular, ca. 12–20 × 19–26 µm, typically with a row of larger, elongated cells along the insertion on the abaxial leaf face; lobe cells ± isodiametric, often in regular tiers; surface of disc striate-papillose (rarely almost smooth), the lobes densely and often coarsely papillose. Oil-bodies inconspicuous, obscure, occupying a small fraction of cell, hyaline, mostly 1, sporadically 2 or 3 in basal part of lobe, fusiform to crescentic, coarsely papillose, only slightly larger than chloroplasts. Underleaves large, 0.45–0.6× the leaf area, asymmetrically 4-fid, with 2(3) lobes few-celled and often uniseriate for most of their length or aborted, ending in a slime papilla, the remaining lobes approaching those of the leaves in size and shape. Asexual reproduction absent.
Androecia not seen. Gynoecia on abbreviated ventral-intercalary branches issuing from basal, leafless sectors of main stem, the gynoecium base swollen and rhizoidous; bracts much larger than leaves, all erect and closely ensheathing the perianth, those of innermost series membranous, deeply concave-canaliculate, narrowly ovate; apices 4-dentate-lobulate, the armature leptodermous, each tooth or lobule consisting of a single cell or 2–3 laterally juxtaposed cells that are variously laterally free, or a short, acute process terminating in a uniseriate row of 2 cells, the apex otherwise crenulate; lamina composed of ± regularly short- to long-rectangular, leptodermous cells, the margin bordered by cells variable in shape and orientation, most long and narrow and with the apical or free end variously divergent and forming a short projection or a tooth, the margin irregularly crenulate to crenate-denticulate, occasionally with a ciliiform process; bracteole similar in size and form. Perianth very large for plant size, straight to slightly curved, fusiform, terete below, at times obscurely trigonous in median sector, the distal sector clearly pluriplicate and gradually narrowing to the contracted mouth, the mouth fringed with ca. 10 narrowly attenuate, laciniiform processes that usually terminate in a uniseriate row of 2, elongate, thin-walled cells or sporadically in a single elongate cell, the mouth appearing fringed with cilia; perianth bistratose in basal sector.
Seta with 13 rows of outer cells surrounding an inner core of ca. 42 much smaller cells. Capsule ellipsoidal-cylindrical in immature state.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Stewart Island (5–530 m), South Island (10–900 m), North Island (5–1320 m). Known from Fiordland, Southland, Otago, Westland, Western Nelson, Southern North Island, Volcanic Plateau, Auckland and Northland EPs.
The species, frequent in the South Island, occurs on inorganic substrates over a rather broad altitudinal range, like several other New Zealand members of the genus. It occurs on soil in pakihi bogs and extends to upper elevations in open, boggy or damp sites. In the Paparoa Ra., for example, it is a penalpine plant on the sides of rills in an area of Celmisia, Chionochloa rubra, Dracophyllum longifolium and Empodisma minus (immediately N of Sewell Peak, 890 m). In such areas it may form swards under snow tussock, or, exceptionally, may even occur deep in rock crevices or on soil over rock. It also may occur in protected pockets of alpine fellfields (Tongariro Natl. Park, headwaters of Mangawhero River, 1630 m). At the summit area of Te Rangaakapua (Urewera Natl. Park, 1265–1320 m) it is rather common in a mosaic of stunted Olearia colensoi and tussock with occasional Coprosma spp., and at this site it occurs on soil of the floor or of vertical small banks. Of interest is the presence of this species in the central North Island frost flats, a habitat subject to desiccation and one that is wholly marginal for Hepaticae, consisting of an open, low area with scattered Leptospermum scoparium, Dracophyllum subulatum and abundant Cladonia (near Otupaka Stream, 13 km SW of Minginui).
On Stewart Island it was found deep in a protected pocket of a rock crevice in mosaic communities of dense heath-forming shrubs to 3 m tall, penalpine herbs and dwarf heaths to 0.5 m tall, dominated by stunted Leptospermum scoparium and Dracophyllum and a ground tier including Empodisma (Mt. Rocky summit area, 530 m). Also near sea level on Stewart Island, and at Port Pegasus the species occurred on a vertical rock face immediately below Belltopper Falls in an open, humid niche dominated by bedrock with a forest margin of Weinmannia racemosa and Dracophyllum.
Comments : The loosely organized branching pattern of mature, well-developed plants of this species is fundamentally different from that of Kurzia calcarata in that the erect green leafy shoots arise as intercalary innovations from horizontal, leafless (or microphyllous) reddish brown stolons, as well as occasionally from other erect leafy shoots. Brownish, geotropic, microphyllous stolons normally originate from basal, leafless sectors of upright shoots, or from other stolons. The system of prostrate stolons and intercalary, erect leafy shoots is found in several other Lepidoziaceae, such as Pseudocephalozia paludicola R.M.Schust. (Schuster and Engel, 1974, fig. 1) and Hygrolembidium triquetrum J.J.Engel & R.M.Schust. (Schuster and Engel, 1987a, fig. 13). In these species, however, branching is exclusively intercalary, or nearly so. In K. calcarata, the erect, pinnately decompound branches are terminal in origin (both Frullania and Microlepidozia types), arising at regular intervals from a ± elongated, indeterminate, leafy “runner.”
Optimally developed plants of Kurzia compacta show a clear approach to the complex pattern of gametophyte organization seen in subg. Dendrolembidium (Schuster, 1980a, p. 382). They have erect, brownish axes that are distally green and compactly bipinnate, while the lower parts of the erect main axis bear long, sometimes ramified, microphyllous flagelliform, root-like axes. Unlike K. tenax, however, leaf bases are never armed with tapered, multicellular, abaxially projecting processes.
