Microlepidozia fragillima (Herzog) Fulford

  • Authority

    Fulford, Margaret H. 1966. Manual of the leafy Hepaticae of Latin America--Part II. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 11: 173-276.

  • Family

    Lepidoziaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Microlepidozia fragillima (Herzog) Fulford

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants filiform, in depressed, tangled, yellow-brown mats; stems very slender, fragile, brittle, 2-4 cm or more long, with leaves 0.16 mm wide, pinnate or bipinnate, the lateral branches long often becoming long flagelliform at the tip, the ventral branches occasional, leafy or flagelliform; stems in transverse section with a cortical row of about 12 cells somewhat larger than the cells of the medulla. Line of leaf insertion transverse. Leaves distant to subimbricate, spreading but curved upward in the outer part, stem leaves quadrifid, branch leaves trifid or bifid to within one cell of the base, brittle and broken, the lamina six to eight-cells wide; segments subulate, four to six cells long, mostly two cells wide at the base ending in a uniseriate tip of three or four cells, the cells 18-27 × 10-12 µ, the walls slightly thickened, the cuticle conspicuously striolate. Underleaves smaller, bifid or trifid, the segments unequal with one longer, the cells as in the leaf. Plants dioicous. Female inflorescence on a short ventral sexual branch, the bracts and bracteoles in three or four series, the inner series long-ovate, bifid to one-half, with two ciliate laciniae. Male inflorescence, perianth, and sporophyte not seen. Pl. 50. Fig. 5, a-d.

  • Discussion

    Lepidozia fragillima Herzog in Skottsberg, Nat. Hist. Juan Fernandez Easter Is. 2: 726. f.6. 1942.

    Kurzia fragillima (Herzog) Grolle, Revue Bryol. Lichenol. 32: 174. 1963. (1964).

    Habitat: On soil in shaded woods. JUAN FERNANDEZ: Masatierra, Skottsberg [1916-17] 232, (type, Hb Herzog).