Lepicolea scolopendra (Hook.) Trevis.
Jungermannia scolopendra Hook., Musci Exot. 1: pl. 40, f. 1–3. 1818.
Sendtnera scolopendra (Hook.) Nees in Gottsche, Lindenberg & Nees, Syn. Hepat. 241. 1845.
Leperoma scolopendra (Hook.) Bastow, Pap. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania 1887: 249. 1888.
Herbertia scolopendra (Hook.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 836. 1891.
Type: New Zealand, South Is., Dusky Bay, 1791, Menzies (BM! – c. sporo., FH! – c. sporo.).
[Plate 1E, F; Fig. 7: 7–9; Fig. 8: 2, 3, oil-bodies, p. 100]
Plants stiff and wiry, bristle-like, golden brown to pale brown; 25–65 mm long, 13–16 mm wide; shoots to 2.6 mm wide. Stems nearly covered by leaves and underleaves, rigid, wiry, lacking paraphyllia. Leaves rigid, brittle, obliquely spreading, rather densely imbricate, sub- to ± symmetrically rectangular/long-ovate to obtrapezoid, the lamina often somewhat dilated dorsally; leaves 0.60–0.95 mm wide at the level of the median sinus, 2–2.8 mm long, quadrifid, the median sinus descending to 0.6–0.85, the marginal pair of sinuses ± similar to one another in depth and shallower than the median sinus, the lobes caudate, the distal sector hyaline and setaceous, the leaf lobes with uniseriate row (420)490–630 µm long and with distinctly protuberant septa, the terminal cell 6–13:1, (130)150–200 µm long, the second and third cells from tip (2.8)3–11:1, the fourth cell 2–4:1, the segment margins entire; dorsal and ventral margins of lamina broadly curved, subauriculate at base, the marginal cells with swollen, protuberant septa giving a coarsely crenulate appearance, the dorsal margin otherwise ciliate-laciniate and with the distal sector of armature setaceous, the ventral entire or with a lacinia. Vitta of leaves distinct, in median sector of lamina and extending to level of median sinus, or, less conspicuously, to middle of lobes, but not to the apices; cells of vitta elongate, near the leaf base 18–25 µm wide, 38–58 µm long. Leaf cells with massive trigones, the cells between vitta and margin in median sector of lamina 18–22 µm wide and long; surface of lamina striate-papillose, of uniseriate row of lobes finely striate, of leaf base markedly long-striate. Oil-bodies occupying a small portion of cell lumen, pale smokey grey, 2–4 per basal cell of lobe, 6–11 per cell at base of disc, homogeneous, subglobose to broadly elliptic, often irregularly so, sometimes subcrescentic, often with a rather elongate depression, 1.9–2.4 × 2.9–4.8 µm, globose ones 2.4–3.4 µm in diam. Underleaves ± clasping the stem, widely spreading to squarrose, the lobes often broadly reflexed, imbricate, symmetric, obtrapezoid, 2–2.1 mm long, quadrifid, the median sinus descending to 0.7–0.8; lobes as in leaves; lamina margins crenulate as in leaves, otherwide entire or repand. Asexual reproduction lacking or ?by leaf fragmentation. Fungal partner absent.
Plants dioecious. Androecia restricted to branches, wider than sterile sectors of branch, terminal but eventually becoming intercalary; bracts in 4–6 pairs, less deeply divided than leaves, the lamina ventricose and with dorsal and ventral margins ciliate. Gynoecia on short abbreviated branches; bracts of innermost series obtrapezoid, quadrifid, the median sinus descending to ca. 0.75, the lateral pair of sinuses much shallower, the lobes caudate and with uniseriate sector as in leaves, the lobe margins entire; lamina margins ciliate-laciniate, the armature setaceous distally; bracteoles of innermost series with shape and lobes as in bracts, the median sinus descending nearly to base; lamina margins sparingly dentate to ciliate. Coelocaule 2.3 mm long, 1.3 mm in diam. including cilia.
Seta to 2.8 mm long. Capsule 1 mm in diam., the wall 66–72 µm thick, of 5–6 layers; outer layer of cells subquadrate to short-rectangular, with two-phase–type thickenings, the radial walls with broad-based nodular to spur-like thickenings that tend to cluster on opposing sides of a radial wall, the thickenings very large in proportion to cell volume; innermost layer of cells with dense nodular thickenings, semiannular bands lacking.
Spores ellipsoidal, 30–35 × 24–25 µm, brown, aculeate with truncate spines ca. 5 µm long, surface with fine papillae between the spines. Elaters tortuous, 12–13 µm wide, bispiral, strongly tapered toward the tips.
Distribution and Ecology : New Zealand: Campbell Island, Auckland Islands, Stewart Island, South Island (0–915 m); Australia: Tasmania, Victoria; the species is absent from southern South America (Engel and Merrill, 1996b). In the South Island known from Fiordland, Westland and Western Nelson EPs. Uncommon in Nelson, and most common west of the Main Divide south of about Arthur’s Pass; in Southland not known east of Fiordland.
On bryophyte-covered logs or epiphytic in lowland to montane forests of tall podocarps, Nothofagus and Weinmannia, 0–500 m. Less common in upper montane short forest and penalpine scrub of Halocarpus biformis, Lepidothamnus intermedius, Metrosideros umbellata, Olearia colensoi, Phyllocladus alpinus and Dracophyllum spp. (870–1000 m), as well as on rocky knolls and on slopes of mostly exposed, bare rock in areas with sparse vegetation (e.g., a few scattered shrubs and grasses at 510–570 m). Typical associates are Acromastigum anisostomum, Bazzania adnexa, Bunodophoron spp., Dicnemon calycinum, Dicranoloma robustum, Gackstroemia weindorferi, Herbertus oldfieldianus, Radula buccinifera, and at open rocky sites, Rhacocarpus purpurascens.
Comments : The species may be recognized, even in the field, by the bristle-like appearance due to the hyaline, setaceous leaf lobe apices. The terminal cell of the lobes, as well as the second and third cells, are markedly elongated and capillary (Fig. 7: 8, 9). The species is more commonly terrestrial than Lepicolea attenuata.
