Lejeunea Masamiana (Lejeuneaceae), a New Liverwort Species from Indonesian New Guinea
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Hattoria 12: 1–7. 2021 Lejeunea masamiana (Lejeuneaceae), a new liverwort species from Indonesian New Guinea Gaik Ee LEE1, 2 & Tamás PÓCS3 1 Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia 2 Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia 3 Eszterházy University, Institute of Biology, Botany Department, Eger, Pf. 43, H-3301 Hungary Author for correspondence: Gaik Ee LEE, [email protected] Abstract A new liverwort species, Lejeunea masamiana G.E.Lee & Pócs, is described and illustrated from Indonesian New Guinea. It is recognised by the strongly recurved to involuted leaves both in dry and moist condition, leaf cells with well-developed trigones and with conspicuous intermediate thickenings, smooth cuticle, fully incurved free margin of the lobule, and large, reniform underleaves with frequently recurved margins and with lobes up to 1/4 of underleaf length. Morphological variations of some liverwort species due to environmental effect of the forest in New Guinea are discussed, as a factor which might have influenced also the morphology of the new species. Introduction New Guinea is politically divided into two separate regions, i.e. Papua New Guinea and Indonesian New Guinea (Fig. 1). The vascular plant flora of New Guinea is widely known with its remarkable diversity higher than the Madagascar and Borneo, and it also rank among the most biodiverse island on Earth (Cámara-Leret et al. 2020). As compared to vascular plant, the inventory has been less detailed and in general extremely fragmentary for bryophytes. It appears that in New Guinea, bryophyte exploration has been more intensive or bryologically well known in the eastern (Papua New Guinea) than in the western (Indonesian New Guinea) part of the region. For example, the liverwort species recorded in Papua New Guinea was 557, which has 63% more species than Indonesian New Guinea, with 342 species (Grolle & Piippo 1984). Reasons maybe due to the lower collecting density in Indonesian New Guinea, a scenario similar to vascular plant, and the relatively larger areas and good road infrastructure on some of the highlands, e.g. road to Mt. Kaindi fide Grolle & Piippo (1984), in Papua New Guinea. Furthermore, much collecting has been done for the bryoflora of Papua New Guinea due to the Finnish-American expedition in 1981 between University of Helsinki, Academy of 1 Figure 1. Map of New Guinea showing two separate regions; Papua New Guinea and Indonesian New Guinea. The star indicates the locality where the type specimen of the new species was collected. Finland and Humboldt State University (California) which yielded enormous amount of specimens. Since then, numerous papers (a series of about 80 chapters) on the liverwort species have been published resulting from the joint expedition. The first comprehensive checklist from Western Melanesia which include New Guinea and Solomon Islands was made by Grolle & Piippo (1984). In their checklist, 28 species of Lejeunea were reported with the highest representation from Papua New Guinea, with 22 species, followed by Indonesian New Guinea and Solomon Island with 6 and 2 species, respectively. Moreover, 18 species of Lejeunea in the checklist were not specified to which regions and had been reported as “Nova Guinea” or “New Guinea”, mostly by Stephani (1914– 1915) and Bischler et al. (1961). Several additions were also added from the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea with a total of 16 species of Lejeunea which had been enumerated by Pócs et al. (1994, 1995, 2019). Recently, four new species of Lejeunea viz. L. streimannii Y.M.Wei & R.L.Zhu, L. heinarii G.E.Lee & Pócs, L. madangensis G.E.Lee & Pócs, and L. marginedentata G.E.Lee & Pócs, have been published, in which the latter two type specimens were collected during the expedition in 1981, as well as new combinations [L. giulianettii (Steph.) G.E.Lee & Heinrichs, L. tjibodensis (Steph.) G.E.Lee & Heinrichs] and new variety [L. pulchriflora var. nymannii (Steph.) G.E.Lee & Heinrichs] reported from Papau New Guinea (Lee et al. 2018; Wei et al. 2018; Lee et al. 2020). In this paper, we report another new species of Lejeunea from Indonesian New Guinea. Even though this species is without mature perianth, it has most of the distinctive characteristics of the genus Lejeunea: ocelli absent, ventral merophyte 2 cells wide, stem with 7 epidermal cells (thin-walled and larger than medullary cells), hyaline papilla at the proximal side of the first tooth, branches of the Lejeunea-type, and gynoecia with lejeuneoid innovations. Several distinguishing characters of this species including the strongly recurved to involuted leaves, the small leaf lobules with 2 fully incurved free margin, and the reniform, frequently recurved underleaves, however, did not match with any of the Lejeunea species known so far, and hence we describe it here as new species, L. masamiana, in memory of the late Dr Masami Mizutani. Materials and Methods The new species of Lejeunea masamiana was described and illustrated based on the specimen kept in Herbarium Haussknecht (JE, Zanten 716a). This plant was first examined under an Olympus SZ51 stereomicroscope both in dry and wet condition (moistened with tap water), and then detailed morphological characteristics of the species were examined using Leica DM1000 microscope. The illustration of the type specimen was produced using the same compound microscope equipped with a drawing tube. Taxonomy Lejeunea masamiana G.E.Lee & Pócs, sp. nov. Fig. 2 Diagnosis: The species is similar to the Papua New Guinean Lejeunea giulianettii in the relatively large size, the strongly recurved leaves, the broadly rounded leaf apices, the absence of a large disc cell of lobule, and the large, distantly arranged underleaves. The latter species, however, differs in the presence of two intermediate thickenings in basal leaf cells between adjacent trigones, the flat free margin of leaf lobules, and the finely punctate-papillose cuticle. Type: INDONESIA. Western New Guinea, Antares Mts., Camp 39a, 1,500 m elev., 1959, Zanten 716a (holotype: JE). Description: Plants dioicous?, 1.8–2.5 mm wide, irregularly and slightly, seldom bipinnately branched, branches erect-spreading to spreading, with three rather large basal collar lobes. Stem 0.15–0.20 mm in diameter, about 7 cells high in cross-section; epidermal cells 38–63 µm wide, medullary cells 15–17, 13–25 µm wide, ventral merophyte 2 cells wide. Leaf lobes ovate-orbicular, 1.0–1.3 mm long, 0.8–1.0 mm wide (when flattened), strongly imbricate; leaf apex broadly rounded, strongly recurved to frequently involute when in dry or moist condition; leaf margins entire; the ventral margin forming an angle of 100°–130° with the keel when flattened; insertion 12 lobe cells long. Leaf cells rather uniform, gradually becoming smaller towards the leaf margin, usually round, irregularly quadrate to rectangular towards the leaf margin; apical cells 13–25×13–25 µm, median cells 25–38×13–25 µm, basal cells 38–50×25–33 µm; cell walls hyaline, with well-developed (relatively large) trigones and infrequently with intermediate thickenings, 1–2 per cell, 0–1 between 2 adjacent trigones. Cuticle smooth. Oil bodies not seen. Leaf lobules relatively small, sometimes reduced, 0.15–0.20 mm long, 0.10 mm wide, to 1/5 the length of the lobe, at an angle of 60°–70° to the stem, ovate to oblong, inflated along the keel; apex obliquely truncate; keel somewhat straight to curved; free margin incurved fully; first tooth 38–45 µm long, oblong, somewhat erect, apex obtuse; margin between tooth and sinus 3 cells long, large disc cell (cell 3 Figure 2. Lejeunea masamiana G.E.Lee & Pócs. A: Part of plant in ventral view. B–C: Leaves. D–F: Underleaves (flattened in F). G: Cross-section of stem. H: Apical leaf cells of leaf lobe. I: Stem portion and leaf lobule. J: Upper part of leaf lobule when flattened (hyaline papilla shown in gray). K–M: Cross- section of leaf lobe. N: Marginal leaf cells. O: Female bracts and bracteole. P–Q: Female bracts. R: Median leaf cells. All figures drawn from the holotype, Zanten 716a (JE). 4 below the first tooth) lacking, 25–33 µm long, 20–25 µm wide. Underleaves reniform (wider than long), (0.3) 0.40–0.45 mm long, (0.5) 0.6–0.8 mm wide, to 3–4 times wider than the stem, contiguous to distant; covering the leaf lobules; bilobed, lobes to 1/5–1/4 of underleaf length, about 9–12 cells wide, triangular, sometimes connivent to overlapping; sinus narrow, acute, V-shaped; tips acute to obtuse; underleaf margin entire, recurved; two large basal underleaf cells differentiated; base ± cuneate, insertion line curved. Gynoecia on short or long lateral branches, female bracts somewhat crowded, with one innovation, with 1–2 gynoecia in a lateral position. Female bracts smaller than the leaf, erect-spreading when moist. Lobes ovate to somewhat oblong, 0.75–0.80 mm long, 0.5–0.7 mm wide, apex broadly rounded, margin entire. Lobules oblong, 0.3–0.4 mm long, 0.05–0.08 mm wide, rarely reduced, 1/10 the width and 1/3–1/2 the length of the lobe, apex obtuse; keels straight, smooth, 0.10–0.25 mm long. Female bracteoles ovate, 0.6 mm long, 0.45 mm wide; bilobed, lobes to 1/4–1/3 of female bracteole length, overlapping, sinus narrow, acute; margin entire. Androecia, perianth, sporophyte and vegetative propagation not seen. Etymology: The species is named in honor of the late Dr. Masami Mizutani, an eminent hepaticologist, in recognition of his significant work on the family Lejeuneaceae. Discussion Lejeunea masamiana is easily recognised by 1) the frequently involute leaf lobes when dry or moist, 2) the broadly rounded leaf apices, 3) the leaf cells with relatively large, well- developed trigones and conspicuous intermediate thickenings, 4) the smooth cuticle, 5) the small, ovate to oblong leaf lobules with fully incurved free margin, 6) the absence of large disc cell (below the first tooth of lobule), and 7) the rather large, reniform, frequently recurved underleaves with lobes to 1/5–1/4 of underleaf length.