Species

Cololejeunea cardiocarpa

Common Name(s)

Liverwort

Current Conservation Status

2009 - Data Deficient

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2004 - Threatened - Nationally Critical

Qualifiers

2009 - OL, SO

Authority

Cololejeunea cardiocarpa (Mont.) R.M.Schust.

Family

Lejeuneaceae

Flora Category

Non Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

COLCAR

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Liverwort

Synonyms

Lejeuna cardiocarpa Mont.

Distribution

Indigenous. Known in New Zealand from a single gathering made from the Alderman Islands. Also U.S. A., S.E. Asia, Pacific, Australia and Africa.

Features

Plants small, consisting of isolated stems appressed to the substrate. Shoots usually 600–800 µm wide. Stems are slender, c. 34–36 µm wide, producing small fascicles of rhizoids near and slightly below the base of each leaf. The leaves are flat when wet or dry, closely appressed to the substrate, ovate, widely spreading, somewhat imbricate, the dorsal base somewhat overlapping the stem. The lobe is c.330–380 µm long by 225–245 µm wide, with both margins slightly curved to nearly straight, with the apex blunt to rounded, and the base strongly narrowed. The apex of mature and well developed leaves is tipped with a group of hyaline fingerlike empty cells (these being c.9–14 × 30–46 µm). The lobule is inflated, broadly ellipsoidal, strongly constricted at the base, averaging c.0.35–0.4× as long as the lobe, 120–150 µm long × 120–135 µm wide; keel convex, barely crenulate because of the convex cells, lobule apex marked by an obtuse 1-celled tooth; midway between this tooth and the keel is an elongate 2-celled apical tooth c.38 µm long. All cells are of one type, thin-walled and with small trigones. The cells are 13–15(–18) µm diameter near apex and on margin and (12)–16–17 × 17–22 µm medially. Oil bodies of the New Zealand material (2–)3–7 per cell, sub spherical in leaf cells and 2–3 µm diameter, coarsely granular.

Fruiting

Fruits have not been seen in New Zealand

Threats

Probably not threatened. Listed because currently it is known from New Zealand only as a single, fragmentary specimen collected from the Alderman Islands. As this species is very small and easily overlooked it best qualifies as Data Deficient. There are no obvious threats to this species at its sole known New Zealand location, which is a Nature Reserve with permit only access. This species needs to be looked for elsewhere in northern New Zealand.

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No



Attribution

Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (30 October 2006). Description adapted from Braggins (1999).

References and further reading

Braggins, J.E. 1999: Cololejeunea cardiocarpa (Lejeuneaceae) a new hepatic record in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37: 79-82.

This page last updated on 20 Oct 2014