Lepicolea ochroleuca (Spreng.) Spruce

  • Authority

    Fulford, Margaret H. 1963. Manual of the leafy Hepaticae of Latin America--Part I. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 11: 1-172.

  • Family

    Lepicoleaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Lepicolea ochroleuca (Spreng.) Spruce

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants large, yellow to golden-brown or dark brown, ascending to erect in large, deep cushions; stems rigid, to 14 cm long, with leaves to 5 mm wide, without paraphyllia, regularly pinnate, the lateral branches simple, widely spreading, often becoming attenuate-flagelliform, decurved in the outer part. Stem leaves subsymmetric, 0.5-1.5 mm long, 0.3-0.7 mm wide, cuneate, bisbifid; segments lanceolate, the margins with a few long, slender teeth and cilia, crenulate, the tips attenuate, ending in a uniseriate row of to twelve cells which become increasingly longer to the tip cell, hyaline in part; dorsal margin of the lamina with a few long teeth and cilia, the ventral margin not divided, crenulate; cells of the lamina tending to he in rows, below the segments averaging 27-36 X 18-22 µ, the walls thickened, with large trigones and thin pits, the cell lumina angular, the cuticle verruculose. Underleaves symmetric, similar to the leaves, scarcely smaller. Plants dioicous. Male inflorescence intercalary on a vegetative branch, the bracts and bracteoles in sixteen or more series, the bracts less divided and with more cilia than the leaves, concave; antheridia large, one or two in the axils of the bracts; paraphyses absent. Female bracts and bracteoles similar to the leaves and underleaves, larger; archegonia twelve or more. Coelocaule elongate, club-shaped, densely covered with paraphyllia and scales (fragments of the bracts and bracteoles), the unfertilized archegonia at the tip, fleshy, the wall thick, closely adhering to the young sporophyte. Mature sporophyte, spores, and elaters not seen. Fig. 2, a-j.

  • Discussion

    Jungermannia ochroleuca K. Sprengel, Syst. 42: 325. 1827. Sendtnera ochroleuca C. G. Nees in G. L. & N. Syn. Hep. 240. 1845. Sendtnera ochroleuca ß mexicana Gottsche, Mex. Leberm. 140. 1863. Leperoma ochroleuca Mitten in J. D. Hooker, Handb. N. Zeal. FI. 754. 1867. Herbertia ochroleuca Trevisan, Mem. 1st. Lomb. III. 4: 397. 1877.

  • Distribution

    Habitat: On the ground, over rocks and on trunks of trees, forming spongy cushions with other bryophytes.

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