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| The liverwort genera (Bryophyta: Hepaticae and Anthocerotae) of Britain and Ireland |
~ Lepidozia
Gametophyte. Plants minute to medium sized, dull green to brownish, leafy. The branching regularly to irregularly 1–2 pinnate, but producing vertical leafless shoots that penetrate the substrate to a depth of 20 cm. The stems with cortical cells clearly differentiated from the cells of the central strand (with large, thick-walled cortical cells, those of the central cylinder smaller and thinner-walled). Plants with flagella or flagelliform shoots or branches, or with neither flagella nor flagelliform shoots or branches. Acrogynous. The leaf cells without trigones. Rhizoids present.
The leafy shoots dorsiventral, with two equal ranks of lateral leaves and a third, ventral rank of smaller underleaves. The vegetative leaves more or less symmetrical to markedly asymmetrical. The vegetative leaves transversely inserted to obliquely inserted; alternate; overlapping (towards apices), or distant; spreading to incurved, when oblique incubous; several-lobed (symmetrically to asymmetrically (2-)3–4 lobed almost to the base, incurved hand-like, the lobes narrow and biseriate to their unicellular apices); not complicate-bilobed; without vittae. Underleaves similar in size to the laterals to smaller than the laterals though well developed and conspicuous (smaller or similar to them, 2–4 lobed almost to their bases). The cells of the gametophyte with numerous small chloroplasts.
The plants dioecious.
Male inflorescences usually on short ventral branches, the bracts much larger than the leaves, a half to two thirds 2–5 lobed, the lobes dentate. Male bracts subtending a single antheridium. The antheridial stalks 1 seriate. Female inflorescences on short ventral branches. Female bracts present (isophyllous, much larger than the leaves, simple or lobed to laciniate, the margins entire, denticulate or ciliate-dentate). Perianth present; narrowly ellipsoid, contracted to the unistratose mouth.
Sporophyte. The sporophyte elevated by elongation of the seta, with no intercalary meristem. The capsule wall 2–3 layered. The spores unicellular when shed. Elaters present; bispirally thickened; free.
British representation. 3 species; England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
Classification. Class/Division Hepaticae. Subclass/Class Jungermanniidae. Order Jungermanniales. Family Lepidoziaceae.
Illustrations. • cf. K. pauciflora (as Lepidozia setacea): Jameson, in Macvicar (1926). • cf. K. pauciflora (as Lepidozia setacea): Pearson fig. XLVI (1902). • cf. K. pauciflora (as Lepidozia setacea): Pearson fig. XLVI legend. • K. sylvatica (as Lepidozia: Jameson, in Macvicar (1926). • K. trichoclados (as Lepidozia): Jameson, in Macvicar (1926).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2005 onwards. The liverwort genera (Bryophyta: Hepaticae and Anthocerotae) of Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
