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tasmanian liverworts - lepidoziaceae
Telaranea 111221A
1. terminal shoot (possibly branch)
This came in with a scraping off a shaded dry wall of a stream subject to turbulent flow in heavy rain. Growing in the vicinity were two mosses, Hypopterygium and Fissidens. There was a Chiloscyphus sp. mixed with the sample. Dominant vegetation was Eucalyptus delegatensis.
Stems were stiff and wiry, robust relative to size of leaves which were distant except at the tip. Branching was sparse, even on a 15mm section. However we did notice what appeared to be a freshly developing ventral intecalary branch. There were no flagellate branches amongst the several pieces examined. Leaves were attached transversely and were near squarrose.
Stems were around 0.1 mm wide with estimated 15 rows of cortical cells and 12 inner rows of medullary cells. The latter comprised of an inner core of 3 cells surrounded by an outer core of 9 cells (pix 8). Lateral leaves were mainly 3&4-fid (pix 2) and underleaves were 2&3-fid (pix 9). However we discovered a few leaves lower down on one stem that had 6-fid lateral leaves (pix 3). There were some rhizoids but they were not a prominent feature of the specimen.
Leaf lobes were distinctive in subtending from one to two quadrants and had ciliform lobes with pointed terminal cells (pix 4). Lobes were largely uniseriate and composed of 5 cells; they appeared to be 1-2x height of disk. Basal leaves had disks 7 cells high and 16 cells wide narrowing to 8-9 cells at attachment to stem. Underleaves had outer lobes curving in (pix 9) and the disks seemed to be only 1-2 cells high
Disk cells ranged from isodiametric to elongated x2, 20-30 µm across and had prominent papillae over the cuticle (pix 5). Lobe cells ranged up to 40 µm long with length being nearly 4x width. There were 4-6 round oil bodies per cell but details were obscure even at high magnification (pix 6).
We have been unable to identify this with the standard key. The closest match is T. lindenbergii var. papillata, known only from the type specimen from New Zealand but differs from that in significant characteristics.
 2. terminal leaf |
 3. basal leaf |
 4. leaf lobes |
 5. lobe papillae |
 6. leaf cells |
 7. stem |
 8. stem TS |
 9. underleaf |
References
- Engel JJ & Smith Merrill GL (2004) Austral Hepaticae. 35. A
taxonomic and phylogenetic study of Telaranea (Lepidoziaceae),
with a monograph of the genus in temperate Australasia and
commentary on extra-Australasian taxa. Fieldiana Botany,
New Series 44. University of Illinois provides several free versions of this monograph - the pdf file is around 30MB
- Engel, J.J. & Glenny, D., A Flora of the Liverworts and
Hornworts of New Zealand, Vol 1,
p. 270
f; ISBN 978-1-930723-67-2
Page URL: http://www.bluetier.org/Liverwort/telaranea-111221A.htm