Goebelobryum unguiculatum (Hook.f. & Taylor) Grolle

Thouvenot, Louis, 2023, A taxonomic revision of the Lophocoleaceae Vanden Berghen (Marchantiophyta) of New Caledonia, Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (1), pp. 1-60 : 52-54

Goebelobryum unguiculatum (Hook.f. & Taylor) Grolle

Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory 25: 137 ( Grolle 1962). — Jungermannia unguiculata Hook.f. & Taylor, London Journal of Botany 5: 279 ( Taylor 1846).

—

Type: New Zealand. Hooker 258 ( FH), not seen.

Lophocolea purpurea Steph. , Species Hepaticarum 6: 289 ( Stephani 1922). — Chiloscyphus novae-caledoniae J.J.Engel & R.M.Schust. , Nova Hedwigia 39: 419 ( Engel & Schuster 1984 [1985]).

—

Type: New Caledonia. “ Lerat ” s.n. (lecto-, here designated, G [“ In jugo Dogny (1040 m)”, L. Le Rat 211 bis, “General Paris misit”, G00112486 ]!; isolecto-, PC [ PC0102405 ]!; REN [herb. E. G. Paris]!) syn. nov.

FURTHER SPECIMEN EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. South Province, Mt. Mou , on shady bare soil in trail side across shrubland in ultramafic massif, 750-850 m, 17.IX.2016, Thouvenot NC2105; “ in jugo Dogny (1050 m), Catene centralis”, VII.1909, L. Le Rat s.n. as “ Lophocolea defectistipula ” ( REN [herb. E. G. Paris]).

DISTRIBUTION IN NEW CALEDONIA. — Goebelobryum unguiculatum is known from a few collections in both provinces where it grows on bare soils in mountain shrublands and forests (collection data from 700 to 1000 m).

TOTAL RANGE. — Australasia.

DESCRIPTION

Based on the type material of Lophocolea purpurea . Further descriptions and illustrations in Grolle (1962), Engel & Glenny (2012).

Habit

Plant medium sized, light green and purple tinged to winered coloured, blackish in older parts, shoots 3.00 mm wide, stem relatively thick, 0.30 mm wide; leaves alternate, dorsally assurgent-convex, spreading at right angle when flattened, dorsally free; rhizoids thin, hyaline, dense, obscuring the ventral face of the stems and the underleaves, inserted on bulging rhizoidal plates at the bases of the underleaves and leaf ventral margins.

Leaves

1.40-2.00 mm long, 1.50-2.50 mm wide, rounded to reniform, apices somewhat angular or emarginate, margins long ciliate, more distantly on the lower parts, with up to 10 rigid whitish cilia, made of 4-5 elongate, uniseriate, thick-walled cells.

Cells

Leaf cells large, 40-80 µm wide, cell walls thin, red tinged as well as the medium globose trigones, external wall of marginal cells thicker.

Underleaves

Very small to vestigial, associated with a large bulging rhizoidal plate, underleaves not connected to the leaves, at most 80-160 µm long, 80-120 µm wide, narrower than the stem, sometimes inconspicuous, reduced to a few cells, when developed bifid, with two short lobes erect linear, up to three cells long, separated by a “v” shaped sinus; the lamina null or, at most, small rectangular, 3-4 cells long or wide, lateral margins with a single small unicellular tooth if any.

Marsupium

Developed at the arched end of some shoots, long cylindrical, hidden in the substrate; gynoecia and androecia not seen.

COMMENTS

The type specimen of Lophocolea purpurea seen by Stephani was sterile so that he missed the marsupium-bearing condition of this species and, although the specimen exhibits vegetative characters unusual in the family Lophocoleaceae , namely the small or vestigial underleaves, Stephani described it as Lophocolea purpurea . Later, when Engel & Schuster (1984) downgraded Lophocolea to a subgenus of Chiloscyphus , they replaced this name by Chiloscyphus novae-caledoniae (the blocking name Chiloscyphus purpureus Steph. is from South America), likely without reviewing the type. There is a part of the original type material sent to Stephani in the herbarium of E. G. Paris (REN). This specimen has some shoots with marsupia so that it belongs to Goebelobryum . Goebelobryum unguiculatum was already known from New Caledonia ( Thouvenot et al. 2011).

The checklist of the liverworts of New Caledonia ( Thouvenot et al. 2011) mentions a doubtful record of Plagiochila blepharophora (Nees) Lindenb. , according to a specimen reported by Paris (1910) under the name Lophocolea defectistipula Steph. The relevant specimen at REN has been checked and has proven to be a poorly coloured Lophocolea purpurea . Therefore, Plagiochila blepharophora must be removed from the New Caledonian bryophyte flora.