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tasmanian liverworts - lepidoziaceae

lepidozia 120811C

Lepidozia 120811C
1. Lepidozia 120811C habit

 

This was growing on the shaded side of a small rotting log in a forest clearing. Shoots were growing erect from the base and had ventral secund single pinnate branching as is apparent in pix 1 above. Some of the branches tapered to flagellae bearing microphyllous leaves. There were a few ventral intercalary branches.
Small quantities of Frullania rostrata and Cephaloziella exiliflora were growing mixed with the specimen.

We were unable to key this out from Engel & Glenny1, the closest match being L. obtusiloba2 which it resembles to some extent but is not a perfect match.

Dorsal leaf arrangement was imbricate obscuring the stem (pix 2). Stem leaves conformed to description of L. obtusiloba with sinus to cell attachment cell count within the expected range for ventral (9) and dorsal (17) sinuses (pix 3).
Underleaves were near squarrose with lobes terminating in 2-4 sub-quadrate uniseriate cells, some of which were wider than they were long (pix 3 & 4). All terminal cells observed had slime papillae.

Cell walls appeared thickened without prominent trigones (pix 5). Basal cells at mid-leaf were considerably larger than those around border. Median cells had from (2)3-6(-8) botryoidal oil bodies with relatively large spherules. Stem TS showed little difference between cortical cells (≈18) and medullary cells (≈48) (pix 6).

What is remarkable about this specimen is the profusion of androecia on many of the shoots (pix 2, right). These were often crowded on both main and branch stems as well as on some flagellate tips.
Antheridial stalks were biseriate (pix 9). Usually spermatozoids would be free swimming at the time of year for the genus but in this case they seemed to be immotile, suggesting this could be a sexually abnormal plant.

Lepidozia 120811C stem
2. stem		 Lepidozia 120811C leaves
3. leaves		 Lepidozia 120811C more leaves
4. leaf lobe and half leaf		 Lepidozia 120811C cells
5. cells
Lepidozia 120811C stem TS
6. stem TS		 Lepidozia 120811C androcium
7. androecium		 Lepidozia 120811C androcium large
8. androcium		 Lepidozia 120811C antheridia
9. antheridia

References
1Engel, J.J. & Glenny, D., A Flora of the Liverworts and Hornworts of New Zealand, Vol 1, p. 213-219; ISBN 978-1-930723-67-2
2Authors above report this species as occuring only in Victoria, Australia but the Checklist records this for Tasmania and NSW as well

Page URL: http://www.bluetier.org/Liverwort2/lepidozia-120811C.htm

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