Cephaloziella remotifolia (Marchantiopsida, Cephaloziellaceae), a new species from alpine New Zealand

Abstract

Cephaloziella in New Zealand comprises 20 taxa with the addition of Cephaloziella remotifolia sp. nov., newly described based on a recently collected male specimen from alpine Western Nelson. Cephaloziella remotifolia is distinguished from other New Zealand Cephaloziella species by a distinctive combination of remote leaves, the stem and leaves pluripapillose, leaf base processes absent or slight, stem cortical cells not differentiated from inner cells, leaves asymmetrically bilobed and divided to ×0.4 their length, and leaf margins entire. Other features include underleaves absent or very small with a few cells only, they are never bifid and are not papillose, and the leaf cell walls are only 2 µm thick. The species is dioicous and androecia are terminal on the main shoot, becoming intercalary, the bracts much larger than leaves. The plants have been found in penalpine seepage among other bryophytes and on peat soil over granite in stunted shrubland.