Bazzania peruviana (Nees) Trevis.
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Authority
Fulford, Margaret H. 1963. Manual of the leafy Hepaticae of Latin America--Part I. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 11: 1-172.
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Family
Lepidoziaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants of medium size to large (rarely small, pale and delicate), in dark green to brownish tufts or mats; stems 5 cm or more in length, with leaves to 3.5 mm broad; lateral branches mostly 5 mm apart diverging at an acute angle; flagelliform branches frequent. Leaves imbricate, plane, long, ascendent and becoming decurved to falcate from a broad base on long robust stems, less strongly falcate to ovate, spreading on smaller stems, 1.5-2.0 mm long, 1 mm broad at the base, narrowed to the transversely truncate, sharply tridentate apex; teeth variable, mostly slender, sharply acute, three to eight cells long, two to four cells broad, the sinuses mostly deeply lunulate, the margins serrulate to dentate; leaf-cells thin-walled, the trigones tiny to small, the lumina rounded, the cuticle verruculose ; cells of the apical region averaging 20-24 µ. Underleaves large, imbricate, with a hyaline border above, often longer than broad, conspicuously connate with a pair of leaves, often becoming recurved in the upper half, the apex more or less incised and lobed and serrulate to spinose-dentate, the hyaline border four to eight cells broad (sometimes to half the leaf), the cells thin-walled, the chlorophyllose cells with thicker walls and small trigones. Female inflorescences occasional, the bracts and bracteoles broadly ovate, the bracts of the innermost series divided to one-third of their length into two or three laciniae, the margins coarsely incised and toothed. Perianth long, the mouth long-ciliate to laciniate. Male branches and sporophytes not seen. Fig. 38, a-k.
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Discussion
Mastigobryum peruvianum C. G. Nees in G. L. & N. Syn. Hep. 220. 1845. Mastigobryum lechleri Stepkani, Hedwigia 25: 134. pl. 6. 1886. Mastigobryum peruvianum var. ß minimum Gottsche & Schiffner in Schiffner, Lebermoose. Forschungsreise S.M.S. “Gazelle” 4: 17. pl. 4. f. 17, 18. 1888. Mastigobryum cerinum Stephani, Spec. Hep. 3: 457. 1908. This species and the next, B. skottsbergii, form a highly variable complex, the plants of which vary in habit, color, size, leaf shape, cell size, thickness of cell wall, teeth, degree of serration on the margin, and in the position and the characteristics of the underleaves. The size and shape of the underleaves vary with the size of the stem; the upper part may be recurved or plane and the hyaline margin may extend to half the leaf or it may be limited to one or a few rows or even only scattered cells. Some of the robust plants of the early collections were given names of New Zealand or Pacific species of this general habit, as M. novae-zelandiac (Mitten), M. involution (Montague), M. adnerum (Lehmann & Lindenberg), and B. platycnemum Schwaegrichen ex Stephani, and others. The collections on which these reports were based have not been studied, but the type or authentic material of each of the species has been examined. These latter show as much variation as do the American species. It is obvious that the whole complex of these South-Temperate-Antarctic taxa of the section Connatae need to be studied as a group.
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Distribution
Habitat: Over soil, rocks and the bases and trunks of trees, in depressed mats or deep ascending tufts.
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