Flora of New Zealand Series

Jungermannia byssacea Roth, Tent. Fl. Germ. 3: 307. 1799.

Cephalozia byssacea (Roth) Dumort., Recueil Observ. Jungerm. 18. 1835.

Cephaloziella byssacea (Roth) Warnst., Krypt.-Fl. Brandenburg 1: 224. 1902. 

Type: Germany (W!, herb. Lindenberg).

Jungermannia confervoides Raddi, Jungermanniogr. Etrusca 18. 1818; Mém. Soc. Ital. Sci. Modena 18: 29. 1818. 

Type: Italy.

Jungermannia starkei Funck ex Nees, Naturgesch. Eur. Leberm. 2: 223. 1836, nom. illeg.

Cephaloziella starkei (Funck ex Nees) Schiffn., Lotos 48: 341. 1900, nom. illeg. 

Type: Germany.

Jungermannia divaricata Sm. in Sowerby, Engl. Bot. 10: 719. 1800.

Cephalozia divaricata (Sm.) Dumort., Hep. Eur. 89. 1874.

Cephaloziella divaricata (Sm.) Schiffn. in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1 3(1): 99. 1893. 

Type: Great Britain, Norfolk, Francis.

Plants filiform and often rather rigid, brittle, commonly loosely decumbent (or, when crowded, erect), scattered or in loose patches, green or ± brown to (usually) locally purplish brown or copper-red to vinaceous, occasionally blackish, the shoots 160–450 µm wide. Branching remote, the branches usually intercalary, lateral, and ventral (rarely terminal and Frullania type); often with subfloral innovations. Stems relatively stout, the cortical cells in surface view quadrate to short-rectangular, in cross section with walls somewhat to strongly thickened, the cell lumina often guttulate and rounded. Rhizoids sparsely developed. Leaves strongly rose-red to purplish red pigmented, with base usually ± spreading on mature plants or erect-spreading, but lobes loosely (sometimes abruptly) folded upward and erect or suberect, folded in vigorous phases, remote, transversely inserted and oriented, broadly quadrate to obtrapezoidal, small, commonly little broader than stem, bilobed to 0.5–0.65; lobes ovate-triangular to ovate-lanceolate, acute or subacute, terminating in 1 cell or a uniseriate row of 2 subisodiametric cells, on mature sterile shoots (5)6–9(10) cells broad at base, entire or with a small basal tooth; sinus often slightly reflexed. Cells copper-red to purplish, thin to slightly thickened, occasionally prominently thick-walled, (8)9–12(13) µm wide × 12–15 µm long at lobe bases (in ours); cell surfaces smooth or (less often) weakly papillose. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1972a, 1996a) in ours (1)2–3(5) per cell, faintly granular, rather large, 3–3.5 × 3.5 to 4–4.5 × 5–5.5 µm. Underleaves of mature, sterile, non-gemmiparous shoots usually distinct throughout, rarely obsolete locally, very variable in size, usually lanceolate or subulate, 6–9(10) to 15–17(19) cells wide at base (in ours). Gemmae often present, green to (sun forms) usually purplish, 2-celled, elliptical with a terminal mamillate projection on each end, ca. 10–15 × 15–25 µm; gemmiparous leaves becoming strongly erose.

Dioecious; commonly sterile, but rather often with plants of the two sexes in separate patches. Androecia often purplish red, becoming intercalary on usually long leafy axes, as wide as vegetative portions of shoots or slightly wider, compactly and usually longly spicate, prominent; bracts strongly concave at base, 0.5 bilobed, the lobes subentire to entire, 1-androus. Gynoecia terminal on long leafy shoots; bracts often purplish red but hyaline at margins and apex, much larger than leaves, 0.3–0.4 bilobed, the lobes subacute or acute to shortly acuminate, denticulate or serrulate to spinulose-dentate with sharply projecting 1(2)-celled spreading teeth; bracteole as long as bracts but usually narrower, similarly lobed and dentate, united with one or both bracts for up to 0.5 its length. Perianth green at base, varying to purplish or reddish purple medially, decolorate at mouth, fusiform-ovoid, ca. 0.5–0.65 emergent at maturity, usually obtusely 4-plicate in distal 0.5–0.6, gradually narrowed to mouth; mouth crenulate with narrow cells.

Spores 6–9 µm in diam., virtually smooth. Elaters 6–8 µm wide.

Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: South Island (1525–1585 m). Exceedingly widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere in temperate, boreal and Arctic regions (Schuster, 1980b). The species also occurs in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela (Schuster, 1980b, p. 88). Reports from the Falkland Islands are based on a specimen that is actually Cephaloziella dusenii (see Engel, 1990a). Extra–New Zealand reports from southern temperate and subantarctic regions require confirmation.

On the flanks of Mt. Brewster (Westland EP) at 1370–1585 m on thin peaty soil over insolated exposed small ledges, where kept moist by seepage and associated with Marsupella sparsifolia, Diplophyllum verrucosum, Adelanthus occlusus, Lepidolaena taylorii, Andrewsianthus “confusus”, and Radula sp. (Schuster, 1973).

Comments : This highly variable species is unisexual and very often sterile. Underleaves are usually distinct throughout, lanceolate or subulate, and are up to 15–17(19) cells wide at the base. Leaves are strongly rose-red to purplish red pigmented with lobes (5)6–9(10) cells broad at the base, with cells at the lobe bases (8)9–12(13) µm wide × 12–15 µm long.

1 For additional synonymy see Schuster (1980b, pp. 85-86).