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tasmanian liverworts - plagiochilacea

plagiochila fragmentissima (formerly 110723A)

Plagiochila fragmentissima
1. Habit as epiphyte and leaf details

 

The Checklist cited below lists 18 Plagiochila species for Tasmania but we have not been able to collect many species. This specimen was identified with the help of MR.

This leaves are a little unusual in that most of the leaves appear to lack teeth commonly associated with the genus. A few of the young leaves have 2 prominent uniseriate teeth so it is likely these erode with time.

Leaves have prominent trigones with 3-5 botryoidal oil bodies per cell.

We were fortunate encountering this liverwort just as the sporophytes were dehiscing and were able to capture images of the fruiting bodies.

Plagiochila fragmentissima leaf cells
2. leaf cells
Plagiochila fragmentissima capsule wall
3. capsule walls
Plagiochila fragmentissima spore
4. spore
Plagiochila fragmentissima elater
5. elater

 

References
- Inoue, H. & Schuster, R.M., 1971, 'A Monograph of the New Zealand and Tasmanian Plagiochilaceae', J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 34:1-225, f.1-77 provides a key to Tasmanian species
- Meagher, D, & Fuhrer, B., A Field Guide to the Mosses and Allied Plants of Southern Australia, (ISBN 0 642 56828 6), Flora of Australia Supplementary Series, Number 20 - Australian Biological Resources Study/The Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, 2003
- McCarthy, P.M., Checklist of Australian liverworts and hornworts, 2006

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110726-2, 2, 5, 7, 2346