Flora of New Zealand Series

Cephalolobus hodgsoniae R.M.Schust., Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 34: 254. f. 1. 1966 (“hodgsonae”).

Andrewsianthus hodgsoniae (R.M.Schust.) R.M.Schust. ex J.J.Engel, Novon 17: 311. 2007. 

Holotype: New Zealand, South Is., Mt. Cook Natl. Park, Sealy Ra., above Sealy Lakes, ca. 4500–4900 ft., R. & O. Schuster 49702.

Plants Cephaloziella -like in appearance, wiry, rather rigid, ascending to suberect, dull green, at least locally (e.g., in leaf lobes) brownish to reddish brown, small to minute, to 480 µm wide. Branching common, the branches uniformly lateral-intercalary, from near middle of leaf axil, occasionally becoming flagelliform and rhizoidous. Stems large for plant size, in surface view covered with close, coarse, hyaline papillae and scattered, conical to finger-like cellular outgrowths, the stem surface dull, rough and irregular, in cross section with the cortical cells thick-walled, greenish brown or ± brownish, not sharply differentiated, a little smaller than the medullary cells; medullary cells with the inner cells hyaline and distinctly larger than the peripheral ones, quite collenchymatous. Rhizoids few to frequent, colorless, scattered. Leaves erect or suberect to obliquely spreading, not dorsally assurgent, remote, transversely oriented, the insertion subtransverse in dorsal half, the ventral half quite succubously oblique, with bistratose fields with abaxially projecting cells, and then the leaf lamina mamillose in profile, the leaves concave and loosely semiamplexicaul, often weakly sheathing basally, broadly ovate to quadrate-ovate, small, bifid to ca. 0.45–0.55; lobes erect, medium to rather broadly acute, with margins straight to at times arched, the lobes at times short-apiculate; sinus rather sharply V-shaped; lamina margins entire to sparingly dentate. Cells with walls thin to ± thickened, with trigones distinct, concave-sided, those of lobe margins and lobe apices ca. 12–15 µm to 14–17 µm wide, those of leaf middle small, ca. 13–15(17) × 13–18(20) µm, those of leaf base not or a little larger and hardly elongated; surface markedly coarsely papillose, with 2–6(8) coarse, contiguous-confluent, ± hemispherical hyaline papillae per cell surface, obscuring cell outlines and content, the papillae ranging from 3–6 µm up to 5–6 × 5–9 µm in diam. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1966c) 2–4(5) per cell, almost homogeneous, faintly granulate at best, glistening, ovoid to subspherical, large for the size of the cells (ca. 3–4 × 5 µm to 4.5–5.5 × 6–8[9] µm, in marginal and apical cells some only 2.5–3 × 3–4 µm). Underleaves consistently produced, 0.2–0.5× area of leaves, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, the apex at times bidentate; ventral merophytes relatively broad. Asexual reproduction lacking.

?Dioecious. Androecia not seen. Gynoecia terminal on leading shoots, with 1(2) subfloral innovations, at least if sporophytes are not produced; bracts of innermost series ovate-rotundate to oblate, bifid to 0.35–0.45, rarely trifid, the lobes ± divergent, medium to very broad acute, sometimes acuminate, at times with subparallel sides, the lobe margins sparingly dentate to coarsely spinose-dentate, the teeth sharp, irregular and jagged, the lamina margins dentate to spinose-dentate; cells of bracts coarsely papillose; bracteole oblong, bifid 0.3–0.35(0.45), the margins as in bracts. Perianth 0.5–0.65 emergent, ± inflated, obovoid, terete below, the distal third with 4–5 inflated, rounded plicae, contracted in distal 0.15; mouth lobulate, the lobules narrow, dentate to ciliate, the cilia hyaline, with a uniseriate row of up to 4 cells; perianth unistratose.

Sporophyte not seen.

Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: South Island (ca. 1370–1495 m).

The type was collected in the alpine zone in the Sealy Ra. (Mt. Cook Natl. Park), over moist soil between rocks and associated with Acrolophozia pectinata, Diplophyllum domesticum, Gymnomitrion denticulatum and Andreaea. Not known from any other specimens.

Comments : This species differs from Andrewsianthus cuspidatus in the much larger underleaves, the rough and irregular stem surface with conical to finger-like cellular outgrowths, the much less sharply differentiated stem cortical cells, the smaller leaves and the stouter stem.