Bazzania novae-zelandiae (Mitt.) Besch. & C.Massal.
Mastigobryum novae-zelandiae Mitt. in Hook.f., Bot. Antarc. Voy. 2: 148. 1854.
Bazzania novae-zelandiae (Mitt.) Besch. & C.Massal., Miss. Sci. Cape Horn 5: 233. 1889.
Type: New Zealand, North Is., Tehawera and Tararua, Colenso.
Mastigobryum spectabile Steph., Sp. Hepat. 3: 455. 1908.
Type: New Zealand, Great Barrier Is., Kirk 48 – c. per. (G!).
[Plate 7E, F; Fig. 98; Fig. 100: 1, 2, oil-bodies, p. 441]
Plants large and robust, suberect to erect in loose cushions or in sprawling mats, deep green to brownish green, rarely gold-brown in life; shoots to 6.5 mm wide. Branching repeatedly and pseudo-dichotomously furcate, Frullania type, widely spreading; branch half-leaf ± symmetric, ovate, undivided, tapering to a sharp apex; first branch underleaf undivided or sometimes 2–3-lobed, obliquely to ± longitudinally inserted on ventral or ventral-lateral side of main axis at base of branch or somewhat below it, closely associated with but not connate to an underleaf of main axis. Ventral-intercalary leafy branches sporadically produced, mimicking the terminal branches; stoloniform branches abundantly produced, often very long. Stems wiry, the cortical cells firm, with evenly thickened walls, small, ca. 24–31 µm wide × 55–64 µm long. Leaves opposite, usually ventrally deflexed, weakly to distinctly imbricate, with little or none of stem exposed in dorsal aspect, widely spreading (ca. 90°); leaves not vittate, 1050–1435 µm wide × 2100–2790 µm long, distinctly incubous, asymmetrically narrowly ovate, subfalcate, tapering to a slender truncate apex, the truncation square, the apex coarsely and ± symmetrically (2)3-dentate, plane, the teeth acute to subacuminate, 5–9(10) cells wide at base, terminating in a single cell or uniseriate row of 2 cells, the apex otherwise quite entire; dorsal margin strongly ampliate, distinctly arched, cordate, extending to middle of stem and beyond, entire, not decurrent; ventral margin nearly straight, somewhat dilated to subcordate at extreme base, entire. Cells of leaf ± uniform in size and shape throughout (not subvittate); median cells 24–34 µm wide × 30–44 µm long, somewhat smaller at the apex and much smaller near the margins, especially the dorsal margin; cells thin-walled, with bulging trigones; surface smooth. Oil-bodies occupying a small portion of cell, very pale grey, glistening, in median sector of leaf 4–10 per cell, homogeneous, smooth or slightly textured on surface like a potato, ellipsoid to potato-shaped; acroscopic marginal and submarginal cells with 2–3 per cell, ellipsoidal with rounded ends, 4.5 × 5 µm to 5–6 × 10 µm; basal cells with 6–11 per cell and the same shape and size as at midleaf. Underleaves conspicuous, firm, spreading, plane to slightly concave, subauriculate at base and connate with the leaves on both sides, short-elliptic to subrectangular to lingulate, longer than broad, sometimes with a median sulcus, the apex often truncate, irregularly crenate or occasionally with thin-walled, hyaline, irregular teeth, the apex and often margins with a narrow, ± regular, hyaline (decolorate) border (1–3 cells wide); median cells quadrate to ± elongate, resembling those of the leaves; surface smooth.
Androecia not seen. Perianth (type of Mastigobryum spectabile) prominent, rather straight, fusiform, the basal 0.8 with ca. 5 broad plicae and intervening shallow sulci, the perianth gradually narrowing to the contracted mouth, the plicate distally numerous and deep, the mouth irregularly crenate-denticulate by thin-walled, elongate cells that are partially free at their rounded summit.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Stewart Island (20–530 m), South Island (15–840 m), North Island (60–910 m), Chatham Islands; Australia: Tasmania. In New Zealand known from Rakiura (Stewart, Whenua Hou, Muttonbird islands), Fiordland, Westland, Western Nelson (Rapahoe Ra. to Karamea), Southern North Island (Orongorongo Valley, Tararua and Ruahine ranges), Taranaki (Mt. Taranaki), Gisborne (Urewera), Auckland (Coromandel Peninsula, Waitakere Ra., Great Barrier and Little Barrier islands) and Northland (Waipoua Forest) EPs.
For the most part a species of forests under high rainfall; the forests are of Nothofagus, Weinmannia, mixed tall podocarps and Agathis australis and plants are mostly found on well-drained substrates like rotten logs and tree bases. It is found on the forest floor in the bryophyte-rich lowland forests of the Jackson River area (south Westland) and is also a floor plant in open forests of Nothofagus fusca and Dacrydium cupressinum with sparse understory of Pseudowintera colorata, Quintinia serrata and Dracophyllum traversii (Pororari River, Paparoa Natl. Park).
It also occurs over organic substrates, such as bryophyte-covered logs (where it may form large pure patches), rotted tree trunks and stumps as well as tree bases and exposed roots. On Mt. Te Aroha (880–890 m) plants occurred as scattered patches on the floor of a steep slope in a forest dominated by stunted Nothofagus menziesii, associated with Dracophyllum and Quintinia serrata. On Mt. Moehau (Coromandel Forest Park, ca. 800–840 m) plants formed dense mats over the roots and lower tree trunk on a vertical bank in an area of rocky outcrops and shrub-heath communities including Dracophyllum recurvum, Lepidothamnus laxifolius, Coprosma foetidissima, Oreobolus pectinatus and Corokia buddleioides.
On Stewart Island, for example, at Fern Gully Track (20–30 m) plants occurred in Fuchsia excorticata – Griselinia littoralis forest with a Blechnum discolor ground tier; at the site the species formed a large, raised colony over very thick humus on the forest floor. Also on Mt. Rocky Track (390–475 m) under an overhang of tussock blades near a narrow stream in a stunted and dense Leptospermum scoparium – Dracophyllum – Weinmannia racemosa forest to 3–4 m tall. On Pryse Peak (350–355 m) plants formed small, golden brown cushions in an open shrubland consisting of Leptospermum scoparium, Olearia colensoi, Gahnia and emergent Podocarpus hallii.
In south Westland, Fiordland and Stewart Island it is occasionally epiphytic.
The most common accompanying species are Heteroscyphus billardierei, Hypnum cupressiforme and Leucobryum candidum, Rhizogonium pennatum and Wijkia extenuata. Other species found with Bazzania novae-zelandiae are B. adnexa, Dicranoloma robustum, Hymenophyllum multifidum, Hypnodendron comosum, Lepicolea scolopendra, Lepidozia pendulina, L. ulothrix, Plagiochila ramosissima, P. retrospectans, Rhizogonium distichum, Riccardia cochleata, R. crassa, Schistochila glaucescens, Telaranea tetrapila and Weymouthia cochlearifolia.
Comments : This species has truncate, subentire underleaves, which are elliptic to subrectangular in outline and longer than broad (Fig. 98: 1, 3, 4, 9). The apex lacks a ragged, hyaline margin (or only the marginal row of cells is hyaline; Fig. 98: 3, 4). The leaf areolation is ± uniform throughout and not at all subvittate. The leaf apex and margins of lamina are quite entire and the principal teeth broadly triangular (Fig. 98: 6). No other New Zealand member of the genus approaches Bazzania novae-zelandiae in stature. The leaves of B. involuta and B. adnexa, the two species closest in size, are at most 1.4 and 1.9 mm long, respectively, while those of B. novae-zelandiae are at least 2.1 mm long.
