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tasmanian liverworts - plagiochilacea
plagiochila fragmentissima (formerly 110723A)
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.
2. leaf cells |
3. capsule walls |
4. spore |
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