save the Blue Tier
tasmanian liverworts - lepidoziaceae
lepidozia procera
1. Plants growing off a vertical rock wall
This is a little unusual for a Lepidozia in not always having having prostrate growth. Distal branching was perpendicular to the vertical rock wall it was growing upon, and pinnate shoots were arranged in neat parallel lines as can be seen in pix 1.
Engels & Glenny's description and drawings support our
identification of this liverwort. They report androecia and gynoecia
had not been seen at time of publication (and presumably sporophytes
as well) so we were fortunate to collect a specimen with newly
dehisced capsules.
Several months later we visited the same site and were fortunate to
collect specimens with gynoecia as well as
developing perianths.
We stored some damp live plants in a jar for several weeks and
noticed the following on the fresh growth (pix 6 & 7):
- some of the underleaf lobes were bifid
- underleaves produced rhizoids from various positions on the leaf
disk; few of the rhizoids were branched
- underleaf leaf lobes terminated in slime papillae - these were not
obvious in field specimens
- ventral intercalary branches were present
- chloroplasts
were much more obvious within the cells.
Fertile specimens have been lodged with HO.
2. leaf |
3. leaf cells |
4. spore |
5. capsule wall |
6. underleaf rhizoids |
7. underleaf papillae |
References:
- Engel, J.J. & Glenny, D., A Flora of the Liverworts and Hornworts
of New Zealand: Volume 1 p. 211
Page URL: http://www.bluetier.org/Liverwort/lepidozia-procera.htm