A survey of Marchantiales in the Russian Far East II. Wiesnerellaceae – a new family for the Russian liverworts flora

Abstract

In the course of revision of Marchantiales for the Russian Far East, Wiesnerella denudata, the only species of the monotypic family Wiesnerellaceae is recorded for the first time in Russia. The plant has been found in Iturup and Shikotan Islands of South Kurils), and this is the northernmost locality in the world, the nearest previously known locality being in Honshu in Japan and on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. The morphological description and figures based on specimens from Russia are provided. РезюмеВ ходе проведения ревизии порядка Marchantiales для российского Дальнего Востока, в двух образцах собранных на Южных Курилах (острова Итуруп и Шикотан), выявлено новое для России монотипное семейство печеночников Wiesnerellaceae. Для единственного вида семейства, Wiesnerella denudata -это самое северное местонахождение в мире. Ближайшие районы, из которых этот вид известен, находятся на о-ве Хонсю (Япония) и юге Корейского полуострова. Приводится описание вида, иллюстрации, обсуждается распространение. KEYWORDS: Wiesnerella denudata, Wiesnerellaceae, the Russian Far East, distribution, taxonomy, HepaticaeThe family Wiesnerellaceae iincludes the only one species, Wiesnerella denudata (Mitt.) Steph. The genus Wiesnerella was described by Schiffner (1896), based on the collection from Javanese volcano Gedeh (=Gede), where it was collected in inner side of crater. Already in the time of gathering Schiffner has realized that the plant as a very peculiar one. As he wrote, by the general habit of vegetative plants Wiesnerella resembled Lunularia, but without semi-crescentic gemmae cups characteristic to the latter. Within Wiesnerella Schiffner (l.c.) described the only W. javanica Schiffn. Later Stephani (1898) transferred Dumortiera denudata Mitt. described from the East Himalayas (Mitten, 1861) to Wiesnerella and synonymized it with W. javanica with the former as priority.One more species of the genus has been described from Xizang Province of China, Wiesnerella fasciaria (Gao & al., 1981). According to the original description and illustrations (Gao & al., 1981), W. fasciaria differs from W. denudata in (1) having narrower thallus -30 mm length and 2 mm width; (2) having dark green band in the midline of thallus dorsal surface; (3) very elevated pores above epidermis surrounded by 6 concentric rows of 6 cells in each. However our observations and cited literature indicate that the above mentioned features are very variable and W. fasciaria may be regarded as a form of W. denudata from shady and wet place. Probably this results the acceptance of Wiesnerella in the current classification is as a monospecific genus (Bischler, 1998;Frey, 2009), although nobody formally still not synonymized 2 E.A. BOROVICHEV & V.A. BAKALIN W. fasciaria with W. denudata . We were not able to study the type of W. fasciaria and regard it as a synonym of W. denudata provisionally.The main characteristics of Wiesnerella include: (1) simple air pores; (2) ventral scales in 2 rows, each with single appendage; (3) sporophytes...

The complete chloroplast genome of Wiesnerella denudata (Mitt.) Steph. (Wiesnerellaceae, Marchantiophyta)

“…is a monotypic genus of thalloid liverworts covering only one accepted species (Borovichev and Bakalin 2014 ). Wiesnerella denudata Steph., the temperate to subtropical Himalaya-East Asian species, is distributed in Indonesia, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Southern China, Japan, Russian Far East, and Korea (Borovichev and Bakalin 2014 ). Wiesnerella denudata grows on moist to wet thin soil in humus or rocks, commonly mixture of Dumortiera hirsute (Sw.) Nees and Conocephalum salebrosum Szweyk., Buczk.…”

Wiesnerella denudata (Mitt.) Steph. (Marchantiales; Marchantiophyta) a rare species in the Western Ghats of India

“…Japan (Schiffner 1899), Indonesia: Tjibodason Mt. Gedeh (Campbell 1918), Papua New Guinea (Piippo 1990), China: Hunan, Yunnan, Xizang, Zhejiang, Sichuan (Koponen et al 2000), Taiwan (Huang et al 2012); Russia: Iturup and Shikotan Islands of South Kurils; Japan: Honshu; Korea (Borovichev and Bakalin 2014); Nepal (Pradhan and Joshi 2009); Bhutan (Long 2006); Hawaii (Campbell 1927); Afghanistan (Frey 1974); India-Himachal Pradesh: Dalhousie-Khajjiar road (Kashyap 1929, Bir andChopra 1972. ); Jammu and Kashmir (Sharma and Bhagath 2017); Sikkim (Inoue and Shimamura 1981).…”

“…However, Mitten (1861) had already described Dumortiera denudata Mitt. from east Himalaya (Borovichev and Bakalin 2014), which later became transferred to the genus Wiesnerella by Stephani (1899) as Wiesnerella denudata (Mitt.) Steph.…”

“…Zhang, with a narrow thallus. Borovichev and Bakalin (2014) considered this species to be a synonym of Wiesnerella denudata and commented that the morphological features described by Gao et al (1981) are habitat-induced variations. Kashyap (1929) reported the occurrence of Wiesnerella denudata in Dalhousie of Himachal Pradesh in India, collected from a moist rock under water along the Khajiar road.…”