Flora of New Zealand Series

Plants lax, erect or suberect, loosely interwoven to caespitose, clear brown, the shoot apices pale green, the shoots medium, to 8 mm wide, including branches. Branching rather freely 1(2)-pinnate, the erect leafy branches terminal (of both Frullania and Microlepidozia types), the branches dorsally ascending, the branching frequently subopposite; shoots sporadically flagelliform; branch half-leaf 2-lobed to 0.8, the disc margins with a spinose tooth; first underleaf of Frullania -type branch 4-lobed, inserted on the ventral-lateral side of base of branch and aligned with underleaves of branch. Ventral-intercalary branches occasional, leafy and developing into new leading shoots, or leafless, geotropic and stoloniform. Stems distinctly flexuous; cortical cells short-rectangular, slightly thick-walled, the walls brownish, feebly striolate in surface view, in ca. 12 rows, surrounding a leptodermous medulla of ca. 24–28, moderately smaller cells; cortical cells 2–4 intervening between successive leaves on each side of stem. Leaves soft, lax, cupped, distant to imbricate, the lobes gradually incurved, ca. 400–500 × 500–750 µm, wider than long, the insertion transverse; leaves often highly variable on the same plant, symmetric, ± equally 4-fid to ca. 0.6–0.7(0.85) on strongest shoots, to ca. 0.5 on branches as well as sectors of main shoot. Lobes variable, often somewhat curved, long-attenuate, entire or with 1–several marginal teeth, ± contracted at the base, (2)4–7(8) cells broad, tapered to a uniseriate row of (2)3–4 cells; cells of the uniseriate row isodiametric to ± elongated (to 2.5:1), the terminal cell tapering to a blunt tip. Disc symmetrical, (2)4–6 cells high to as much as 8(10) cells high in shallowly lobed leaves (both extremes at times on same shoot); disc armature highly variable (sporadically developed or lacking in some or all leaves), the sinus bases and the abaxial face of disc typically with one or more acuminate, multicellular fleshy appendages, 1–several cells wide at base, at times forming a basiscopic fringe or “comb” extending across the base of the disc or only in vicinity of the margin, or the armature confined to 1–2 spurs arising near sinus base; one or both margins armed near the base with a strong, often falcate, spur-like tooth. Cells of lobe bases relatively large, with moderately thin, brownish walls, mostly 20–27 × 20–36(40) µm; surface delicately to distinctly and coarsely papillose. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 2000a) 1–3 in most or almost all leaf cells, small for cell size, formed of a few coarse segments. Underleaves subequal to leaves in size or a little smaller, subsymmetrically (3)4-fid to ca. 0.6, with abaxial armature absent, or disc surface sporadically armed as in leaves; disc 3–5 cells high, the margins armed as in leaves. Asexual reproduction absent.

Androecia spicate, on ± short to long indeterminate ventral-intercalary branches, the branches either initially produce vegetative leaves followed by ♂ bracts or, more often, initially produce androecia and proliferate vegetatively distally, the androecia respectively either intercalary or basal on a branch; bracts ventricose-cucullate, strongly dorsally assurgent, the base obliquely spreading, the lobes erect, the bracts bilobed to ca. 0.4 by narrowly acute to acuminate segments; dorsal and ventral margins of disc similar, each with a tooth near segment base, the dorsal completely smooth or with a few slime papillae near base; antheridia 1 per bract, the stalk uniseriate; bracteolar antheridia lacking. Gynoecia on abbreviated ventral-intercalary branches issuing from main stem, the branches often initially with several cycles of microphyllous leaves; bracts of innermost series much larger than leaves, erect and closely ensheathing the perianth, the bracts concave, narrowly ovate to elliptic, shallowly 2–4-lobed, the lobes composed of thin-walled rectangular to subrhomboidal cells, the apical end of the marginal cells often diverging and forming a crenulation or tooth, the lobes terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2 rather elongate cells; lamina composed of ± regularly short- to long-rectangular, leptodermous cells, the margin sparingly and irregularly dentate-ciliate; bracteole similar in size and form. Perianth very large for plant size, straight to curved, long-fusiform, terete below, the distal sector pluriplicate and gradually narrowing to the contracted mouth, the mouth splitting into several narrowly attenuate divisions each sparingly crenulate by the projecting distal end of a marginal cell, the divisions terminating in a single cell or 2 laterally juxtaposed, rather thick-walled, somewhat elongated cells that are laterally free for varying lengths; perianth unistratose throughout.

Sporophyte not seen.

Comments : Kurzia calcarata is distinguished from K. hippuroides in several important respects. The stem cortical cells are relatively thin-walled and the leaf cells are noticeably larger (20 µm or more wide) and appear thinner walled than those of K. hippuroides, even under the dissecting microscope. The leaf cell walls are a rich, clear brown and the surface more faintly and distantly papillose.

Leaf armature in Kurzia calcarata is variable. Expressions with extreme development of armature from the sinus bases and the abaxial face of the disc were described by Schuster (1980a) as a distinct species, K. temnomoides; however, the same degree of ornamentation is found in the type of Lepidozia calcarata (G!). There is a continuum within the species, ranging from phenotypes with almost unarmed leaves to those with occasional abaxial spurs, to those with prominent, basiscopically reflexed spurs, arising at or below the sinus bases, forming a “comb,” reminiscent of K. (Dendrolembidium) tenax (p. 379). In the latter, however, the abaxial transverse comb is more strongly developed and typically arises at or near the leaf base, rather than at or just below the sinus base; K. tenax is also a much larger plant, with elaborate, dendritic branching, lacking in K. calcarata.

Leaves of Kurzia calcarata also vary with respect to lobe width and depth of lobing, from strongly cupped, shallowly divided leaves, with the disc to 8(10) cells high, to deeply divided leaves with a low disc (2–4 cells high) and slender, narrow lobes, 2–3(4) cells wide. The leaves of the type of K. calcarata are 5–7(8) cells high, with lobes (4)5–7(8) cells wide.

Two phases may be distinguished, as follows: