Lepidozia glaucophylla (Hook.f. & Taylor) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees
Jungermannia glaucophylla Hook.f. & Taylor, London J. Bot. 3: 580. 1844.
Lepidozia glaucophylla (Hook.f. & Taylor) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees, Syn. Hepat. 207. 1845.
Mastigophora glaucophylla (Hook.f. & Taylor) Trevis., Mem. Reale Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett. III, 4: 416. 1877.
Lepidoziopsis glaucophylla (Hook.f. & Taylor) E.A.Hodgs., Rec. Domin. Mus. 4: 106. 1962.
Lectotype (fide Engel and Schuster, 2001): Tasmania, 1840, Hooker (FH!).
Plants prostrate, in loosely interwoven pure mats or as conspicuous, isolated strands growing among other matted bryophytes, slender, with spreading branches, glaucous, whitish to ceraceous, the older sectors subnitid and brownish (as if scorched), the surface dull, waxy and water-repellent, the shoots medium, to 1.5 cm wide, including branches. Branching mostly of Frullania type, ± distantly 1(2)-pinnate, the branches gradually tapering, occasionally whip-like, flagelliform and microphyllous; secondary branches occasional on well-developed shoots; branch half-leaf broadly ovate, slightly asymmetrical, cordate at base, 2-lobed to ca. 0.2–0.3, the margin sinuate, or bluntly toothed; first branch underleaf large, mostly undivided, occasionally 2- or 3-lobed, inserted on ventral-lateral side of branch at or near junction of branch and main shoot, aligned with underleaves of branch. Ventral-intercalary branches sporadically produced. Stem epidermal cells in surface view ± thick-walled, with a waxy coating like that of the leaves, the cortex in 1 layer of thin to slightly thick-walled cells ± distinctly larger than the medullary cells; medullary cells slightly thickened. Leaves involute and subamplexicaul when dry, when moist spreading and divergent, rather strongly concave, contiguous to imbricate, at times nearly or completely hiding stem in dorsal view, uniform in size (not in sequential sectors of varying size), 0.6–0.7 mm long and wide, the insertion broad, moderately to strongly incubous; leaves asymmetric, ± equally 4-lobed, the leaves divided to ca. 0.4–0.5 (median sinus), the distance from dorsal sinus base to insertion not much greater than that from ventral sinus to insertion, the sinuses gradually becoming deeper ventrally. Lobes subcaudate, entire, abruptly narrowing to a uniseriate row of 3–5(6) cells; cells of uniseriate row and often the subtending lobe cells elongated (to 2:1), thick-walled, the terminal cell tapering to a point; dorsal lobe 5–7 cells wide at base. Disc distinctly asymmetric due to ampliation of dorsal margin, the dorsal sector to one third the disc area, 14–18 cells high at dorsal sinus, 10–14 cells high at ventral sinus, the dorsal margin subentire to sinuate to distantly and irregularly armed with 1–2-celled teeth, the margin auriculate at the base, the ventral subcordate at the base, occasionally with a small tooth or short spine. Cells of disc and lobes rounded quadrate, evenly thick-walled, trigones absent, the median disc cells 20–26 × 22–30 µm; marginal cells of disc and lobes typically with a thickened outer wall; surface a dense and coarsely granular coating. Underleaves inserted on 8–9 rows of stem cells, distinctly spreading, ca. 1–1.3× stem width, symmetrically 4-fid to ca. 0.4 (median sinus), the lobes plane, narrowly attenuate and consisting of several tiers of 2 laterally juxtaposed cells and then rounded at the tip, or, more commonly, terminating in a uniseriate row of 2–4 cells; disc 9–12 cells high at median sinus, the margins plane, occasionally with a 1–2-celled tooth that terminates in a slime papilla.
Androecia and gynoecia not seen.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: South Island (695–1200 m); Australia: Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales. Apparently very rare in New Zealand and known only from a few South Island sites. Known from four Fiordland sites: at 695 m at Lake Marion in a rather open Nothofagus menziesii forest, with frequent large boulders that are often largely bryophyte covered. At this site, plants of Lepidozia glaucophylla together with hymenophylls formed a thick mass that was loosely attached to a huge boulder (see Engel and Schuster, 2001). Known from Mackinnon Pass at 1000 m on a rock overhang; from the Borland Burn (also Fiordland) in bryophyte cushions under N. solandri var. cliffortioides forest, and from Deep Cove. Also known from two sites on the Paparoa Ra. (Mt. Euclid and Mt. Priestly, 960–1200 m) on humus over rock in N. menziesii forest with abundant Dracophyllum traversii, and from a rock overhang in Chionochloa australis grasslands. Accompanying species are Bazzania nitida, Dicranoloma dicarpum, Distichophyllum pulchellum, Lepidozia kirkii, Leptotheca gaudichaudii, Mittenia plumula, Plagiochila retrospectans, Pyrrhobryum mnioides, Rhizogonium distichum and Weymouthia cochlearifolia.
Comments : Lepidozia species with a waxy, water-repellent “bloom” on the surface of the stems and leaves had been understood as constituting a single species, L. glaucophylla. In fact, however, in New Zealand four distinct elements are represented: L. glaucophylla s. str., L. bisbifida Steph., L. digitata Herzog and L. glaucescens J.J.Engel.
Lepidozia glaucophylla is similar to L. bisbifida in the conspicuous water-repellent “bloom” on the surface of the stem and leaves, and the strongly incubous, subsymmetrically lobed leaves (Fig. 47: 1–3). It is immediately distinguishable, however, by the broadly ampliate and strongly auriculate dorsal margin of the leaf (Fig. 47: 1–4, 8); the irregularly sinuate to toothed leaf margins (Fig. 47: 7–9); the evenly thick-walled disc cells (Fig. 47: 7, 9, 10); the subcaudate, abruptly tapering leaf lobes, which terminate in a uniseriate row of 3–5 elongated cells (Fig. 47: 4–6); and the oblique to longitudinal insertion of the first branch underleaf at the base of the branch, rather than transversely inserted on the ventral-lateral face of the stem, as in L. bisbifida.
