Ceratolejeunea J.B.Jack & Steph.

  • Family

    Lejeuneaceae (Marchantiophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Ceratolejeunea J.B.Jack & Steph.

  • Primary Citation

    Hepaticae Wallisianae
    Hedwigia (Beibl.) 31: 16. 1892

  • Description

    Plant Description (Flora of North America): Plants ca. 1-1.5 mm wide, forming prostrate mats, usually brown to reddish brown when dry; specialized asexual reproduction rare (caducous leaf lobes and leaf margin regeneration sometimes present in C. laetefusca). Stem cross section with 7 epidermal and 10--20 medullary cells. Leaves widely spreading, ovate to ovate-falcate; cell walls with a brown middle lamella; oil bodies granulose to botryoidal, ocelli usually present. Lobules ovoid, strongly inflated, sometimes utriculate at branch base, free margin with 1 single-celled, often falcate tooth, hyaline papilla at its proximal base. Underleaves ovate to orbiculate, 2-lobed to ca. 1/2 underleaf length, lobes erect, triangular. Autoicous or dioicous. Androecia usually on short branches composed exclusively of bracts. Gynoecial innovations 1--2, leaf sequence beginning with underleaf. Perianth with 4 keels forming shoulderlike crests or terete horns that extend beyond apex of perianth.

    Discussion (Flora of North America)): Species 19 (3 in the flora): pantropical, with greatest diversity in neotropics. Ceratolejeunea is generally easily distinguished from other Lejeuneaceae subfamily Lejeuneoideae by the dark pigmentation of the plants, utriculate lobules, and the horned perianths, although not all species possess all of these features. Dauphin (2003) recognized two subgenera (Ceratolejeunea and Caducifolia). All of the North American species belong to subgenus Caducifolia.

    Key to North American Species: 1. Ocelli forming a line extending from base to leaf midportion 3. C. rubiginosa 1. Ocelli basal or absent. 2. 2. Perianth keels forming crests (rather than distinct horns), plants usually dioicous, leaf margins entire, utriculate lobules absent, asexual reproduction by regeneration from leaf margin or by caducous leaf lobes sometimes present. 1 C. laetefusca 2. Perianth keels forming terete horns, plants autoicous, leaf margins entire or irregularly dentate near leaf apex, utriculate lobules often present at branch bases, asexual reproduction absent 2.C. cubensis

  • Floras and Monographs

    Ceratolejeunea J.B.Jack & Steph.: [Article] Dauphin L, G. 2003. . Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 90: 1-86.

    Ceratolejeunea J.B.Jack & Steph.: [Book] Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

    Ceratolejeunea J.B.Jack & Steph.: [Article] 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.