Mitthyridium papuanum

Click the yellow dot to see these synapomorphies (click any yellow dot to see a clade's characters)

Gemmae characters: gemmae smooth

Margin characters: number of border cell columns evolves from 7 to 30+; margin involute/constricted

Leaf characters: leaf tip rhizoids present

Indel characters: indel 1, 2, 6 and 8 evolve.

Mitthyridium papuanum

Range Map

This specimen was collected in the Malay Peninsula though is common throughout the tropical East coast of Australia and is known from Malesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea

Description

Lineage: Mitthyridium papuanum

Latin name: Mitthyridium papuanum (Broth.) Robinson
Synonyms:
Syrrhopodon papuanus Broth.

General description:
Plants in loosely clustered branches. Branches reach as much as 4 cm in length. Leaves 3-4 mm long, broad at shoulders that reach 1.5 mm in width. The lamina is broadly acuminate with subulate apex. Stereome (border of hyaline cells) is very narrow and extends to 1/2 of the entire leaf length. The margin is serrate and the teeth extend the length of the leaf. Costa percurrent or ending just below the apex (as is typical of taxa in Mitthyridium). Laminal cells small (5-7 mm wide). Cancellinae typically occupy 1/5 leaf length and are composed of 15-19 cell columns. Sporophytes unknown.

Diagnostic phylogenetic characters: [move the cursor over the image to view the morphological matrix]
The number of cancellinae cell columns in this lineage is between 15 and 19. The cancellinae occupy no more than 1/5 the total leaf length. The transition between cancelliane and lamina is a state 4 (as in M. leucoloma). The width of the stereome is very small, often less than 7 cell columns. The margin tapers from >4 to 2 cells at about 1/2 the entire leaf length. The leaf apex is subulate and unique among the other members of its clade. Papuanum has few papillae that are typically very small. The lineage bears both an adaxial and abaxial epidermis on its costa, like its relative leucoloma.