Telaranea remotifolia E.A.Hodgs.
Telaranea remotifolia E.A.Hodgs., Rec. Domin. Mus. 4: 107. 1962.
Type: New Zealand, North Is., Tararuas, Ruamahanga Valley, 3 Dec. 1933, Zotov 9275 (MPN!); isotype: (CHR!).
[Fig. 65; Fig. 67: 2, 3, oil-bodies, p. 322]
Plants soft, appearing etiolated and often rather flaccid, loosely prostrate and straggling, in pure, intermingled loose mats or as isolated wisps among other bryophytes, pale green to grass-green, the plants when dry glass-like, the stems sinuous and the leaves shrunken and inconspicuous; plants stenotypic in stature, small, to 1.2 cm wide, including branches. Branching very irregularly and distantly pinnate, the branches of the Frullania type, typically long, weak and filiform; branch half-leaf undivided and subulate or bifid and narrowly rectangular; first branch underleaf asymmetrically bifid, the dorsal lobe leaf-lobe-like, the ventral lobe shorter and terminating in a slime papilla, the first branch underleaf inserted on ventral to ventral-lateral side of branch near juncture of branch and main axis. Ventral-intercalary branches rare, leafy. Stems often appearing fleshy and large for plant size, with cortical cells in 10–13 rows, distinctly differentiated, thin-walled, in section much larger than the numerous (17–25[34]) medullary cells, the medullary strand distinctly visible in surface view of stem. Rhizoids not seen. Leaves on main shoot delicate, brittle, obliquely to widely spreading, conspicuously remote and alternately arranged, weakly convex, the insertion distinctly incubous to almost longitudinal; leaves 265–385 µm wide × 440–565 µm long, asymmetric, 3–4-lobed to ca. 0.55, the lobes about equal to disc or a little longer. Lobes narrowly attenuate, 2–4 cells wide at extreme base, terminating in a uniseriate row of 2–3(4) cells, the dorsal lobe(s) typically somewhat stronger and with 1(2) biseriate tiers between the uniseriate portion and the extreme base, the ventral lobe typically weaker; cells of the uniseriate portion somewhat elongate, thin-walled, the septa neither thickened nor swollen; surface of lobe tips finely striate-papillose, otherwise smooth. Disc somewhat asymmetric, parallel-sided to weakly cuneate, 2–3(4) cells high (from median sinus base to leaf base), 6–11 cells wide in distal portion narrowing to 6–8 cells wide in basal portion. Cells of disc thin-walled, trigones lacking, the basal tier of disc cells at times considerably longer (particularly when disc is 2 cells high), the distal tier(s) shorter, ± elongated, (35)42–53 µm wide × 72–90 µm long; surface smooth. Oil-bodies hyaline, coarsely papillose, the spherules somewhat protruding beyond membrane, the median disc cells with 6 oil-bodies per cell, globose to subglobose and 5–5.9 µm in diam., the cells at sinus base with 5–6 oil-bodies per cell, elliptic to subfusiform, 5.3–6.4 × 9.5–12.2 µm, a few ca. 6.4 × 14.2 µm. Underleaves much smaller than leaves, roughly equal in width to the medullary strand of the stem, spreading, distant, slightly convex (ventral view), 3–4-lobed to 0.45–0.55, the lobes consisting of a uniseriate portion of 1–2(3) somewhat elongated cells, terminating in an elongate slime papilla and a base of 2 laterally juxtaposed cells; disc rectangular (broader than high) to weakly cuneate, 2 cells high (median sinus), 6–8 cells wide in distal and basal portions. Asexual reproduction lacking.
Plants dioecious. Androecia delicate and easily detached, either on short primary Frullania -type branches with a few cycles of normal vegetative leaves prior to androecial formation, or on short, abbreviated, ventral-intercalary branches from leading shoots, the androecium exceptionally long for genus, with up to 9 pairs of bracts; bracts closely to rather loosely imbricate, dorsally assurgent, deeply concave, bilobed to ca. 0.5, the lobes acuminate and terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2 cells, the tip cell of the lobe rather elongated (to 84 µm long, to 3.2:1); dorsal margin somewhat dilated and with a large tooth/lobule with its free margin crenulate, at times with a slime papilla; ventral margin with a conspicuous tooth; bracts monandrous; antheridial stalk biseriate; bracteolar antheridia absent. Gynoecia not seen.
Distribution and Ecology : Endemic to New Zealand: Stewart Island (20–30 m), South Island (25–915 m), North Island (95–425 m), Chatham Islands (80 m). Known from Fiordland, Otago, Westland, Western Nelson, Taranaki, Auckland and Northland EPs.
Sporadically occurring throughout its range, the species seems to have a rather broad ecological amplitude, at least with respect to elevation. For example, on Stewart Island (Fern Gully Track, 20–30 m) the species was found on very old wood of a long-abandoned bridge in dense shade of a forest with a Fuchsia excorticata – Griselinia littoralis canopy with a Blechnum discolor ground tier. Yet it occurs above treeline on stream banks and submerged boulders as well as over peaty soil in shallow pools at bog edges with abundant Sphagnum (Lake Shirley, Fiordland, 915 m), and in an area of tussock grassland with a mosaic of scattered bogs and patches of Dracophyllum, Halocarpus bidwillii, Hebe and Donatia (summit of Mt. Maungatua, 30 km W of Dunedin, 825 m). The species also occurs in mixed Nothofagus forests (Blue River, S of Haast Pass, 310 m), as well as in dense Nothofagus forests of the southern portion of South Island, where it is terrestrial or on rotted logs, occurring at times with Acromastigum cunninghamii, Telaranea tuberifera and Lepidozia kirkii. In the Borland Burn it occurred abundantly in dense cushions on a stream bank under Nothofagus solandri forest, with Balantiopsis tumida, Pachyschistochila subhyalina and Schistochila balfouriana. Along the Aongatete River (Kaimai Ra., 425 m) it has been found over thin soil on vertical bed rock in Dacrydium cupressinum – Beilschmiedia tawa forest with a Cyathea understory. Within the steep-sided valley of Waikohatu Stream (Waipoua Forest, 290 m) it occurs in Agathis australis forests with Weinmannia silvicola over soil of streambed rocks or of stream banks.
Comments : Telaranea remotifolia has a lax, etiolated aspect when dry. The pale green, loosely matted stems appear fleshy and out of proportion to the leaves, which are distant, shrunken, distinctly glass-like and strongly convex. The leaf lobes are often sharply decurved and claw-like. Another of our species with a similar lax, etiolated appearance is T. nivicola, but this has a greatly reduced disc, consisting only of the partially united paired basal cells of the leaf lobes.
Optimally developed shoots have the aspect of an etiolated Telaranea tetrapila. Leaves on such shoots are frequently 4-lobed, the disc is 3–4 cells high (Fig. 65: 1, 4, 5), and the lobes biseriate, at least in part (Fig. 65: 4, 5). The leaves of somewhat weaker shoots have a disc 2–3 cells high and are mostly 3-lobed (Fig. 65: 2). In all cases, however, the ventral leaf lobe is the smallest. Also distinctive are the underleaves, which are particularly small and are about equal in width to the medullary strand of the stem (Fig. 65: 8), which is clearly visible through the cells of the hyaloderm.
Plants with abbreviated leaf discs (2 cells high) could be confused with Telaranea tetradactyla, which also has a rather glass-like appearance, but even when suboptimal, the transverse leaf insertion of this species will distinguish it from T. remotifolia.
