save the Blue Tier
tasmanian liverworts - lepidolaenaceae
gackstroemia alpina
This came in with other material collected from the 3-notches track on the Blue Tier - we are not certain of the exact location but it is likely to have been an epiphyte on a myrtle past the Mt Michael turnoff. There was a fragment of Marsupidium setulosum attached to some of the rhizoids.
Gackstroemia alpina has not been officially recorded for Tasmania although there are reports of Tasmanian collections holding specimens matching the species description. We are sticking our necks out by claiming this is indeed G. alpina, and provide some details.
1. Underside of shoot
What we have is a secodary branch with tertiary offshoots, the primary stub having broken off. We had to visit the University of Auckland website to get a description and micrographs of the species for comparison.
Shoot is a 25mm long fragment with pinnate branching and lobules on the underside (pix 1). Leaves (pix 2) are near circular with several spine radiating out. The main shoot sports rounded bifid underleaves (pix 3) with long teeth as well. Leaves have an oval lobule each, and share another two on the stem (pix 4). Lobules sport a single spine each. Our specimen matches the Auckland description in lacking underleaves on the tertiary branching but these have the usual complement of lobules. Rhizoids were visible at intervals.
 2. leaf |
 3. underleaf |
 4. lobules |
 5. leaf cells |
The most obvious difference between this
and G. weindorferi is that secondary branches
of G. alpina are long and not self-supporting. They have
rhizoids at intervals for adhering to the substrate.
G. weindorferi on the other hand has more of a dendroid
habit and has stubby self-supporting secondary branches. We have not
observed any rhizoids on these on the few specimens we examined.
Web
- University of Auckland provides SEM images of Gackstroemia alpina
Page URL: http://www.bluetier.org/Liverwort/gackstroemia-alpina.htm