Well I finally had another attempt at sectioning the
Lejeunea stem and managed this result. <=6 medullary cells seems to be a good pointer for
mandonii. I'm still not terribly convinced but wonder if there's a referee for this group?
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| stem in top half of section |
Sorry I haven't been sufficiently enthusiastic about this. It really does look like a good candidate for L mandonii, particularly now that you have sectioned the stem. This would be an extraordinarily good record! Nick Hodgetts is ref for Lejeunea and knows L mandonii from both Ireland and Skye (he lives relatively near a colony there), so you could either send it to him or to me. I think one of the Irish colonies is on limestone, and the Cornish population is on coastal rocks. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sam, I'll post it off and await Nick's verdict...
ReplyDeleteNick's reply:
ReplyDeleteHi Barry,
I have just looked at your Lejeunea, which arrived earlier and it is L. patens: sorry! Yes, it is small material, but the rather round leaf lobes, the large inflated lobules making a strong angle with the lobes, and the few, compound oil bodies all point to this. L. mandonii is even smaller, with the leaf lobes longer in proportion to their width and the oil bodies more numerous and smaller. L. mandonii looks more like Harpalejeunea really, but with blunt, less convex leaves.
The clue really was when you said the leaf shape looks good 'on some shoots'. The leaf shape has to be more consistently 'mandonii-like' for it to be L. mandonii.
Keep looking - it may be around somewhere!
Best wishes,
Nick