Cryptochila pseudocclusa (E.A.Hodgs.) R.M.Schust.
Cryptochila pseudocclusa (E.A.Hodgs.) R.M.Schust., J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 26: 284. 1963.
Holotype: New Zealand, North Is., near Ohakune Mtn. Hut, 4500 ft., Dec. 1929, Sainsbury (herb. Hodgson no. 126) (MPN, non vidi).
[Plate 14C–E; Fig. 158: 6, oil-bodies, p. 724]
Plants ascending to erect, vigorous, brownish green to brownish, to 6(10) cm high, to 2 mm wide (in lateral aspect). Stems rigid, light green or whitish above, becoming blackish, the cortex sharply differentiated, the epidermal 1(2) layers of somewhat lighter and thinner-walled cells, the 2–3 subepidermal layers with thickened and strongly pigmented walls; medullary cells thin-walled, colorless. Paraphyllia scattered, delicate, on both dorsal and ventral surfaces of stem. Rhizoids rare, only from stolons, rarely from leafy stems. Branching sparing (shoots often unbranched), ventral-intercalary, also terminal, Frullania type; geotropic, narrow and whip-like, flagelliform branches produced from the lower portions of leafy shoots or from just above branch bases. Leaves densely imbricate, nearly vertical, erect-appressed (especially when dry), the shoots bilaterally compressed, very strongly ventrally secund, appearing incubously shingled in dorsal aspect, the insertion steeply oblique in dorsal portion, becoming subtransverse, abruptly recurved at ventral end, the dorsal leaf bases closely juxtaposed but not crossing stem midline; leaves strongly asymmetric, reniform, entire, 1450–1750 µm wide × 1400–2000 µm long, the apex broadly rounded; dorsal margin tightly and narrowly revolute for most of its length, strongly arched, distinctly and narrowly decurrent at base; ventral margin nearly plane, extraordinarily ampliate, short-decurrent. Cells in concentrically radiating rows, the cells in distal and marginal sectors of leaf quadrate to short-rectangular, evenly thick-walled, the cells in median portion of leaf with small to medium and straight-sided to bulging trigones; cells of upper median portion of leaf 17–23 µm wide × (18)20–26 µm long; median-basal cells distinctly elongated, forming a moderately large and strongly delimited basal area, the cells with bulging to knot-like and subconfluent trigones and intermediate thickenings of the longitudinal walls; surface smooth, long-striate toward the leaf base. Oil-bodies occupying a moderate portion of the cell, hyaline, but with a milky appearance, 8–12 per median leaf cell, irregularly and coarsely papillose, the spherules ill-defined and rapidly swelling and coalescing. Chloroplasts conspicuous for cell size. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1970b) usually (5)6–11(12) per median cell, chiefly very finely granular to almost homogeneous but not glistening, with age developing 1–2 centric or eccentric “eyes,” or somewhat botryoidal, variable, rather small, in median cells 2.5–3 × 2.8–6 µm up to 3–3.5 × 6–8 µm, ovoid or ellipsoidal to subspherical; marginal and submarginal cells often without oil-bodies. Underleaves deciduous, irregularly and palmately divided almost to base into 3–4 lobules each terminating in an elongate slime papilla, the ventral merophyte narrow, forming a continuous, pale, median-ventral strip. Gemmae lacking.
Androecia on leading shoots, somewhat wider than vegetative sector (dorsal view), with 5–8 or more pairs of bracts; bracts resembling leaves but with a deep basal concavity, the dorsal base dilated and sharply reflexed, the margin narrowly revolute; lobule an inconspicuous, irregular, low lamelliform strip; antheridia single, the stalk biseriate. Gynoecia not innovating, at apices of main shoots; subinvolucral leaves somewhat larger, the bracts of innermost series a little smaller, variable, incised-lobulate to laciniate, the apex and margins crispate; bracteole variable, ovate, incised-lobate, the margins coarsely toothed to laciniate. Perianth cylindrical but gradually tapered distally, strongly and deeply pluriplicate in upper 0.5–0.65, the plicae at times extending nearly to the base, the distal 0.4–0.75 of the perianth strongly twisted, the perianth somewhat contracted toward the mouth; mouth shallowly lobulate and weakly crenulate, the marginal cells quadrate to short-rectangular, with weakly thickened walls lacking trigones.
Capsule intense red, ellipsoidal to ovoid, the wall 6–7-stratose, ca. 60 µm thick; outer layer of cells irregular in shape, with longitudinal and all but very short transverse walls with strong, nodular thickenings commonly extending as spine-like projections onto outer wall; innermost layer of cells very irregular in shape, with complete or less often incomplete semiannular bands.
Spores 14–20.6 µm in diam., finely papillose, the papillae often forming short-vermiculate ridges. Elaters bispiral, the spirals distinct to the rather blunt ends, 7.5–8.5(10) µm wide.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Auckland Islands (300 m), Stewart Island (5–400 m), South Island (600–1900 m), North Island (1280–1650 m). Known from Fiordland, Otago (Mt. Cargill), Westland, Canterbury (near the Main Divide), Western Nelson, Southern North Island (Tararua Ra.) and Volcanic Plateau (Mt. Ruapehu) EPs.
For the most part a middle- to upper-elevation species. In wet, rich Nothofagus menziesii forests the species may occur, for example, on thick soil over rock faces (summit area of Haast Pass, Mt. Aspiring Natl. Park), including road banks with seepage. In the penalpine and alpine zones it occurs on soil at the lips of rills or at the edge of boulders (Gertrude Valley, off track to Gertrude Saddle, Fiordland Natl. Park, 1880–1900 m). At Round Lake (Cobb Valley, Western Nelson, 1300 m) it was on sandstone in a steep stream in Chionochloa rubra, Schoenus pauciflorus and Bulbinella hookeri sedgeland, growing with Anisotome aromatica, Forstera tenella and Ourisia lactea. However, along the track to Bowen Falls (Milford Sound, Fiordland Natl. Park) the species occurs at sea level on vertical cliffs with dense bryophyte cover. On Stewart Island near sea level (5 m) on sandy soil in mosaic communities of stagnant ponds, Sphagnum bog, open Leptospermum scoparium – Dracophyllum heath to 1–2 m tall and dense communities of Gleichenia dicarpa and Empodisma minus. In Westland it is found in penalpine gullies under Olearia colensoi scrub. It is found with Anastrophyllum schismoides, Andreaea acuminata, Breutelia pendula, B. elongata, Chiloscyphus leucophyllus, Conostomum pentastichum, Herzogobryum teres, Hymenophyllum armstrongii, Isotachis lyallii, I. montana, Lepidozia obtusiloba, Paraschistochila conchophylla, Racomitrium crispulum, R. pruinosum, Radula sainsburiana, Rhacocarpus purpurascens, Sphagnum falcatulum and Wijkia extenuata.
Comments : This species stands apart from all others in the genus by the narrowly and tightly revolute dorsal margins of the leaves, a feature that may be easily observed in the field. The habitus of the plant is, however, strikingly similar to certain Plagiochila species, namely P. circinalis, which also has erect-appressed, entire-margined, broadly rounded leaves with a strongly revolute dorsal margin. The shoots of P. circinalis, however, lack stem paraphyllia, and the leaf cells have coarsely nodulose trigones. Cryptochila grandiflora may be distinguished, even in the field, by the inflexed dorsal leaf margins.
