Flora of New Zealand Series

[Fig. 61; Fig. 67: 5, oil-bodies, p. 322]

Plants with shoots to 1.5 cm wide (including branches); branching regularly and rather densely pinnate (often plumose in well-developed plants); leaf lobes typically shorter than the disc, subcaudate, ± straight, the cells rather short, barrel-shaped; leaf disc at most moderately asymmetric, often distinctly cuneate, (9)14–21 cells broad distally, composed mostly of large, hexagonal cells, except for distal tier at base of lobes; oil-bodies hyaline, 8–11 per cell.

Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Stewart Island (10–530 m), South Island (0–1280 m), North Island (60–1370 m), Chatham Islands. Known from all ecological provinces in North and South islands.

The typical variety is common throughout our area in low- to middle-elevation forests (typically below 700 m), where it can be particularly luxuriant. It can occur in the upper limits of Nothofagus menziesii forests, or in penalpine scrub, but at these upper elevations, the plants often represent a small or weak phase of the species (it nevertheless may produce sporophytes and androecia and may be well developed in such niches). It grows on an array of substrates, but typically can be found on the forest floor, on soil of mossy banks, on rotted logs or, at times, on upright tree trunks. It is able to tolerate some degree of exposure, and can occur, for example, in open boggy areas with Juncus squarrosus, Coprosma, Leptospermum scoparium and Ozothamnus leptophyllus (Mt. Cargill, Otago), or in pakihi, with Gleichenia, Lycopodium, Juncus, Drosera spp., Schizaea and Leptospermum (Tiropahi River, Westland).