Flora of New Zealand Series

Lepidozia lindenbergii Gottsche in Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees, Syn. Hepat. 213. 1845.

Mastigophora lindenbergii (Gottsche) Trevis., Mem. Reale Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett. III, 4: 416. 1877.

Telaranea lindenbergii (Gottsche) J.J.Engel & Merrill, Phytologia 79: 252. June 1996 (1995). 

Type: “Nova Zeelandia inter L. praenitentem (Hb. Hk.)” (W!, Lindenberg Hepat. no. 4849).

For synonymy, see under varieties.

[Fig. 68: 1–8, 11, 13–16; Fig. 69; Fig. 77: 1, oil-bodies, p. 355]

Plants delicate, often with a bristly appearance, soft, flexuous yet firm (straight and ± wiry in var. mellea), prostrate, pale green to pale yellow-green (or brownish yellow to rust-brown in var. mellea), nitid when dry; plants small, to 5 mm wide, including branches. Branching rather regularly 1–2-pinnate, at times ± plumose, the branches rather closely spaced, terete (complanate-foliate in var. complanata), scarcely tapering (long-flagelliform in var. mellea); branch leaves transversely inserted (incubous in var. complanata and var. papillata); branch half-leaf 2-lobed; first branch underleaf undivided and ciliiform, inserted on ventral side of branch at juncture of branch and main axis. Ventral-intercalary branches occasional, leafy. Stems flexuous, often appearing stout for plant size; cortical cells distinctly differentiated, somewhat thick-walled; cortical cells in section much larger than the numerous (ca. 40–67) medullary cells. Rhizoids often copiously produced from cells of underleaf disc. Leaves on main shoot rigid, widely spreading to squarrose, rather distant on main stems to closely imbricate on the branches, plane or somewhat hand-like due to incurving of lobes, typically transversely inserted and oriented (at times weakly incubous), transverse or weakly incubous on branches; leaves 245–280 µm wide × 175–225 µm long ranging to 390–440 µm wide × 235–320 µm long (4-lobed) to 525–735 µm wide × 370–460 µm long (6-lobed), symmetric to weakly asymmetric, 4–6(7)-lobed to 0.65–0.8, the lobes divergent, longer than disc height. Lobes ciliiform, typically uniseriate to the base, inserted on a triangular base composed of 2 disc cells (or sporadically with an additional biseriate tier between base and uniseriate row), the uniseriate portion 5–6(7) cells long (4–5 cells long in var. papillata), with cells moderately thick-walled and firm, straight-sided and without or with weakly bulging septa; surface smooth. Disc semicircular, 2 cells high (locally 3, exceptionally 4 in var. mellea) (from median sinus base to leaf base) including paired cells at bases of lobes, the basal tier of cells elongate and 8 cells wide in 4-lobed leaves to 12 cells wide in 6-lobed leaves. Cells of disc somewhat thinner-walled than lobe cells but firm, trigones lacking, the largest cells (in median sector of disc) 17–24 µm wide × 40–60 µm long (basal tier); basal tier of disc cells often longitudinally elongated; surface smooth. Oil-bodies in all cells of leaf (?distal 2 cells of lobe excepted), occupying a moderate portion of cell lumen, pale smokey grey, opaque, 7–9 per disc cell, finely papillose, globose to rather broadly elliptic to subfusiform, 3.8–4.8 × 7.2–9.6 µm. Chloroplasts very narrow seen edge on. Underleaves much smaller than leaves, inconspicuous, 4–5-lobed nearly to base, the lobes ciliiform, the uniseriate portion formed of 3–4 somewhat elongated cells, terminating in a slime papilla; disc abbreviated, 2 cells high, 8 cells wide (in 4-lobed underleaves). Rhizoid initial cells small, subquadrate, formed from some or all cells of underleaf disc.

Plants dioecious. Androecia either terminal on short to moderately long primary or secondary Frullania -type branches or on short, abbreviated, ventral-intercalary, spicate branches; bracts closely imbricate, strongly dorsally assurgent, deeply concave-subcucullate, 2(3)-lobed to ca. 0.5, the lobes subcaudate, terminating in a uniseriate row of 3–4 rather elongated, moderately thick-walled cells, the terminal cell tapering to summit, to 3:1; dorsal margin of lamina somewhat dilated and incurved, crenulate and with a few slime papillae or with a 1–several-celled, often sharp tooth; bracts monandrous; antheridial stalk uniseriate; bracteolar antheridia absent. Gynoecia with bracts small for perianth size, those of innermost series concave, short-oblong to ovate; apices shallowly (3)4-lobulate, the median sinus a little deeper, the lobules acuminate, terminating in a uniseriate cilium of 2–4 somewhat elongated cells, often with a terminal slime papilla; lamina composed of ± regularly subrectangular cells, the margins curved, with a few blunt teeth formed by the divergent apical or free end of marginal cells, or margins subentire or with a few small 1–2-celled teeth; bracteoles similar in form to bracts, but 0.5–0.75 their size. Perianth long-emergent, terete in basal sector, trigonous above, basically 3-plicate but with several accessory smaller plicae, the perianth narrowing toward the contracted mouth; mouth with 9–13 caudate lobes, the lobes each with a base composed of 2–4 laterally juxtaposed, elongate cells, the lateral cells of base often with the distal end protruding to form a “shoulder,” the lobes each terminating in a flexuous or stiff setose cilium composed of a uniseriate row of 3–5 elongate, rather thick-walled cells, the basal 1–2 cells 13–20 µm wide × 96–130 µm long (5.7–8.3:1) ( var. lindenbergii), or 14–22 µm wide × 60–90 µm long (3.1–4.6:1) ( var. complanata); perianth 2-stratose in basal portion, the cells in section radially elongate.

Seta with 8 rows of outer cells, surrounding an inner core of 15–18 much smaller cells. Capsule short-ellipsoidal, 553–616 µm wide, 1120–1295 µm long, the outer wall undulate in transverse section, the primary walls shorter than the thickened secondary walls, alternatively 29–31 µm to 38–41 µm thick, of 3 layers, the outer layer at its thickest point equivalent to the combined thickness of the two inner layers; outer layer of cells (surface view) in tiers, thin-walled, rather regularly short-rectangular, with two-phase development, the longitudinal walls with rather weakly developed nodule-like thickenings (4–6 per cell) alternating with walls that are devoid of thickenings, the transverse walls also devoid of thickenings; innermost layer of cells ± tiered, somewhat irregularly narrowly rectangular, with semiannular bands common, rather narrow, close, usually complete, sporadically forked and anastomosing to delimit fenestrae.

Spores 13.4–14.9(15.4) µm in diam., the wall pale brown, with a network of low but sharply defined papillae and short-vermiculate markings that coalesce and delimit areolae. Elaters rigid, ± sinuous, 7.7–9.6 µm wide, only slightly tapering toward tips, bispiral to tips, the spirals 3.8–4.8 µm wide.

Comments : This common and widespread species was treated by Hodgson (1956) as a synonym of Telaranea tetradactyla. The name Lepidozia lindenbergii has been used extensively for the New Zealand plant. All of the published species in this complex have proved to be T. lindenbergii, whereas T. tetradactyla s. str.  (p. 336) has no synonyms. For a discussion of the differences between these two species see under T. tetradactyla.

Telaranea lindenbergii is readily distinguishable from other Telaranea species by the distant, widely spreading, deeply dissected stem leaves (Fig. 68: 1), with a low disc, for the most part only 2 cells high (Fig. 68: 2, 3). The leaves of the main axis are ± transversely inserted and oriented, although the orientation of the branch leaves is variable. Four varieties of the species are recognized, which can be distinguished as follows.