Aneura pinguis

Reeb, Catherine, Bernard, Elisabeth Lavocat & Gradstein, S. Robbert, 2022, An integrative taxonomic revision of Aneuraceae H. Klinggr. (Marchantiophyta) from Guadeloupe and Martinique, French West Indies, Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (8), pp. 135-152 : 141

Aneura pinguis (L.) Dumort.

Jungermannia pinguis L., Species Plantarum 1: 1136 (1753). — Aneura pinguis (L.) Dumort., Sylloge Jungermannidearum Europae Indigenarum: 86 (1831). — Type: Europe ( Grolle 1976).

Jungermannia sessilis Spreng. , in Linnaeus, Systema Vegetabilis (ed. 16) 4: 232 (1827). — Aneura sessilis (Spreng.) Gottsche, Lindenb. & Nees , Synopsis Hepaticarum: 495 (1845). — Type: Haiti. (“Hispaniola”), Bertero s.n. (n.v.); syn. fide Stephani (1900).

SPECIMENS EXAMINED FROM THE FRENCH ANTILLES. — Guadeloupe. National Park of Guadeloupe, Carbet Falls, Capesterre Belle-Eau, 16°02’38”N, 61°38’29”W, 637 m, 28.VII.2013, Lavocat Bernard & Reeb ELB1890; Mamelle de Pigeon, Bouillante, 16°10’N, 61°44’W, 519 m, 08.II.2013, Reeb & Lavocat Bernard CR13G49.

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT. — Subcosmopolitan; in the West Indies reported from Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Vincent ( Stephani 1900; Gradstein 1989; Schäfer-Verwimp 2010; Lavocat Bernard & Reeb 2016). Aneura pinguis was first collected in Guadeloupe by L’Herminier ( Stephani 1900) and its presence in the island was confirmed by Lavocat Bernard & Reeb (2016). In Guadeloupe the species grows on the faces (mostly top) of small boulders along paths (e.g. Mamelle de Pigeon) as well as on decaying logs.

ILLUSTRATIONS. — Schuster (1992), Paton (1999), Gradstein et al. (2001).

REMARKS

Aneura pinguis is characterized by the fleshy, 3-8 cm wide, glossy green thallus with undulate to plicate margins, plano-convex in cross section, 9-20 cells thick. Fungal endosymbiotes are present in the ventral cells rows. The plants are dioicous; male branches have antheridia in 2-3(-6) irregular rows and are sometimes 2-3 divided; gynoecia are produced below the thallus margin, beneath the notch of a lateral branch and hidden by a small expansion of the thallus, and the archegonia are protected by shiny and scaly paraphyses.

The taxonomy of the genus Aneura is not clear ( Wachowiak et al. 2007; Wawrzyniak et al. 2018; Reeb & Gradstein 2020), but according to current knowledge the specimens from Guadeloupe should be called A. pingui s. Aneura latissima Spruce , the other accepted species of Aneura in the Neotropics and known from tropical South America and also from Africa ( Reeb & Gradstein 2020), differs by having a thinner (5-8 cells thick), darker green thallus.