Alobiella

• Authority

  Fulford, Margaret H. 1968. Manual of the leafy Hepaticae of Latin America--Part III. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 11: 277-392.

• Family

  Cephaloziaceae

• Scientific Name

  Alobiella

• Description

  Species Description - Leafy stems from a leafless caudex, complanate, light green, irregularly branched; branches ventral-intercalary, leafy, more rarely flagelliform, often caudex-like and bearing several leafy stems; stems flattened dorsally, with two rows of very large cells between the rows of leaves, the ventral side convex, with many small cortical cells; in transverse section the cortical layer of 4 or 5 very large cells (dorsal) and many small cells (ventral) surrounding a medulla of many small cells. Rhizoids long, slender, colorless, scattered along the ventral side of the stem. Line of leaf insertion nearly longitudinal, the leaves succubous. Leaves plane, widely spreading, ovate, the tip bidentate, bidenticulate or rarely acute, the margin plane with or without a border of narrow, elongate cells; leaf cells mostly rectangular, the walls uniformly thickened, without trigones, the cuticle essentially smooth. Underleaves large, rectangular in outline, bifid to one-half their length, the segments narrowly triangular, equal or one shorter than the other, parallel or spreading. Plants dioicous. Male inflorescence terminal becoming intercalary on the stem or a leafy branch, the bracts leaf-like, pouched near the transverse insertion, bracteoles like the underleaves. Female inflorescence on a short ventral-intercalary leafy branch, the bracts and bracteoles in several series, bifid. Perianth long, cylindrical below, 3-keeled above, the mouth lobed, setulose. Shoot-sporophyte relationship a shoot-calyptra. Capsule wall of 2 layers of cells with characteristic markings. Regeneration from filaments grown out from leaf-cells.

• Discussion

  Cephalozia Subg. IV Alobiella Spruce, On Cephalozia 28. 1882. Type species: Jungermannia husnoti Gottsche, 1874.