Flora of New Zealand Series

Jungermannia bicrenata Schmid. ex Hoffm., [Schmid., Icon. Pl. Anal. Part. ed. 2. Manip. 3: 247. tab. 64. f. 1. Erlangen. 1796; nom. inval.], Deutschl. Fl. 2 (Addenda): “page” 38 (unpaginated), “after page 200.” 1796 (1795) (teste Grolle, 1976).

Lophozia bicrenata (Schmid.) Dumort., Recueil Observ. Jungerm. 17. 1835.

Isopaches bicrenatus (Schmid.) Buch, Mem. Soc. Fauna Fl. Fennica 8: 288. 1933. 

Type (fide Grolle, 1976): (Germany) “Baden-Württemberg, Untersontheim bei Schwäbisch Hall, leg. Kemmler.”

Plants stout and fleshy, closely attached to substrate, prostrate except for the ascending tips, green to reddish brown, odorous, shoots to 1 mm wide, to 10 mm long. Branching sparse, the shoots often simple. Stems thick and fleshy, the cortical cells similar to the medullary in diameter, somewhat thick-walled; medullary cells slightly less thick-walled or thin-walled, the ventral 2–3 cell layers (including the cortical) somewhat smaller in diameter and mycorrhizal with age. Rhizoids numerous, long, forming a dense mat to near shoot tips. Leaves somewhat dorsally assurgent, obliquely erect to erect-spreading, contiguous to moderately imbricate, somewhat to strongly concave, suborbicular-subquadrate to suboblate, averaging 1–1.2× as wide as long, bilobed to 0.25–0.3; lobes ± incurved, broadly acute to subacute, terminating in a single subisodiametric cell, the lobes entire or (rarely) with 1–2 isolated teeth; sinus crescentic or obtuse to rectangular. Cells thick-walled, usually strongly so, especially at the angles, the cell lumen often becoming guttulate, trigones indistinct, the median cells 22–27 µm wide × 30–34 µm long, the marginal cells ca. 19–24 µm diam.; surface smooth or faintly papillose. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1969c) in median sector of leaf (3)6–12(15) per cell, greyish, finely granular; oil-bodies absent in isolated or many cells of leaf margins and lobes, in other marginal and lobe cells small and inconspicuous, 2–6 per cell. Asexual reproduction by gemmae, the gemmae consistently and copiously produced, orange-red to reddish yellow to reddish brown, polygonal to stellate, 20–25 µm in diam., 1–2-celled, somewhat thick-walled and with thickened angles or protuberances; gemmiparous shoots not strongly ascending, with leaves becoming erose-lacerate with prolonged gemmae formation, but not smaller in size. Fungal partner a basidiomycete.

Paroecious (usually), at times heteroecious, with plants nearly always abundantly fertile and producing perianths and capsules throughout the growing season. Androecia below gynoecia, but at times isolated androecia on branches from below the gynoecia (then with small bracts); bracts of paroecious inflorescences imbricate, larger than leaves, somewhat concave, subequally bilobed with ventral lobe somewhat larger, the margins remotely and obscurely to distinctly finely dentate; antheridia 1–2 per bract, the stalk 1(2)-seriate. Gynoecia with bracts somewhat similar to the ♂ bracts immediately below except larger, bilobed or with 1–2 accessory lobes, the lobes typically distinctly dentate, rarely only remotely so; bracteole connate at base on one or both sides, lanceolate to obcuneate or oblong, sometimes shallowly 2– 3-lobed, with a few scattered teeth. Perianth ca. 0.6–0.75 emergent, ovoid to cylindrical-ovoid, distinctly plicate in distal 0.5, narrowed to the mouth, the mouth often decolorate, spinose-dentate, the teeth acuminate, mostly 1–3 cells wide at base and 3–4 cells long, the terminal cell usually sharply tapering, 35–48 µm long, 3–5× as long as wide, the largest teeth often with 1–2 basal unicellular teeth; cells below mouth mostly hyaline, thick-walled.

Seta with ca. 16–21 rows of outer cells surrounding an inner core of 12–16 cells ± similar in size or somewhat larger. Capsule ovoid, the wall 2(locally 3)-stratose, the outer layer of cells subquadrate to short-rectangular, the radial walls with spine-like thickenings on longitudinal and transverse walls; inner layer of cells rectangular, with narrow, delicate band-like thickenings that usually extend 0.2–0.5 across the exposed tangential face, the bands at times extending farther as subcomplete or complete semiannular bands.

Spores 12–15 µm in diam., reddish brown, granulate-verruculose. Elaters ca. 8 µm wide, bispiral.

Distribution and Ecology : Circum-Laurasian + disjunct in southeastern Brazil (Gradstein and Pinheiro da Costa, 2003) and New Zealand: South Island (1940–1970 m).

In New Zealand known only from the alpine zone at the track to Gertrude Saddle, head of Gertrude Valley, Fiordland Natl. Park.

Comments : The species may be identified by the combination of the consistently 2-lobed, suborbicular-subquadrate to suboblate, contiguous to moderately imbricate leaves, the ± strongly, equally firm-walled cells, the consistent presence of copious orange-red gemmae, the normally ± strongly toothed ♀ bract lobes and the paroecious or heteroecious condition.