Taxilejeunea
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Authority
Gradstein, S. Robbert & Ilkiu-Borges, Anna L. 2009. Guide to the plants of Central French Guiana. Part 4. Liverworts and hornworts. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76 (4): i-iv + 1-140.
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Family
Lejeuneaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
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Description - Plants usually long and slender, to 10 cm long, pale green to yellowish green to whitish, loosely creeping to laxly pendent. Branches Lejeunea-type. Stems with hyalodermis; ventral merophyte 2 cells wide; stem in cross section usually with more than 25 medullary cells. Leaf lobes spreading, apex acute-acuminate or apiculate, occasionally rounded, plane, margins entire or toothed. Cells plane, with or without small trigones and intermediate thickenings, cuticle usually smooth; oil bodies small, finely granular, occasionally homogeneous; ocelli lacking. Lobules usually very small, ovate, apical tooth short and blunt, hyaline papilla proximal. Underleaves bifid, large, 4-10 times stem width, base often cordate, insertion line arched. Usually autoicous. Androecia on short, specialized branches, bracteoles limited to base, bracts with hypostatic lobules. Gynoecia on short branches in a cymose row, each gynoecium with a short, lejeuneoid innovation that becomes fertile again; bracts small, with reduced lobules. Perianths small or large, inflated, eplicate or with 5 smooth or toothed keels. Sporophyte lejeuneoid. Vegetative reproduction not observed. Taxilejeunea has not been revised, and its taxonomy is unclear; for this reason, species descriptions are somewhat more elaborate than those for other genera. Four species have been collected in central French Guiana, three of which could be named. This large genus is retained here for practical reasons only; in recent molecular-phylogenetic analyses, Taxilejeunea is nested in Lejeunea and cannot be separated (Wilson et al., 2007).