ON ANASTROPHYLLUM STELLATUM SCHUST. (JUNGERMANNIACEAE, LOPHOZIOIDEAE)

Abstract

  The tangled history of Anastrophyllum is reviewed and A. stellatum Schust. of Andean Venezuela is described and figured. This species fits best into subg. Schizophyllum, a subgenus in which gemma formation has not been before seen except in the Arctic A. sphenoloboides Schust. A. stellatum differs from the latter in the: (a) stellate gemmae, freely produced; (b) somewhat more asymmetric leaves with reduced dorsal lobes; (c) much coarser and more sharply defined, nodose trigones; (d) the dioecious inflorescences; (e) apparently uniformly intercalary branching. In size and aspect, leaf form, the development of pigmented 1-2-celled gemmae, and the weakly arched shoot apices approaching A. minutum, which is sometimes segregated in a genus Sphenolobus, yet the leaf cells, with coarsely nodose trigones, and the strongly corticated stem, are both suggestive of Anastrophyllum s. str.