Austrolycopodium magellanicum (Palisot de Beauvois) Holub (1991: 91)

Øllgaard, Benjamin, 2020, Lycopodiaceae in Colombia: Subfamilies Lycopodioideae and Lycopodielloideae, Phytotaxa 433 (3), pp. 195-224 : 201-202

Austrolycopodium magellanicum (Palisot de Beauvois) Holub (1991: 91) .— Figure 3 .

Lepidotis magellanica Palisot de Beauvois (1805: 102) .— Lycopodium magellanicum (Palisot) Swartz (1806: 180) . Type:—Fretum magellanicum, unknown collector (holotype in G (G00348148), Herb M. de Jussieu 669, P! isotype (P00670157).

Lycopodium spurium Willdenow (1810: 28) . Type:— ECUADOR: Quito, in vulcano Tungurahua (B-Willd. no. 19364, holotype).

Lycopodium pichinchense Hooker, Icon. Pl. 1: t. 85. 1837. Lectotype:— ECUADOR: Pichincha, 10.000 ft., Col. Hall s. n. (38?) (K!), designated by Øllgaard (1989: 62).

Plants creeping or hanging over banks. Rhizome subterranean or occasionally above ground (ex. hanging over banks), 1–2 mm thick excl. leaves. Aerial shoots ca 1 mm thick excl. leaves at origin, to 25 cm long excl. peduncles and strobili, repeatedly unequally branched, with spreading to ascending branchlets. Branchlets 4–7 mm in diam. incl. leaves. Branchlet leaves acicular, flattened, smooth, with a long pointed, non-piliferous apex, 3–5 mm × 0.6–0.8 mm. Strobili sessile, or terminating somewhat indistinct, simple or to twice forked peduncles, 3–4 mm thick, 2–10 (–15) cm long, often forked. Sporophylls borne in alternating whorls of 4, forming 8 longitudinal ranks, peltate, with a slender, terete, wing-less stalk, with broadly ovate, short to long acuminate exterior face attached to the stalk near the center, with narrowly scarious, almost smooth to shallowly erose-denticulate margins. Sporangia ca 2 mm wide; sporangium epidermis with regularly sinuate side walls. Spores with unornamented proximal faces, with an irregular, fine-meshed reticulum on distal faces.

Distribution: Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Andes from Venezuela to Chile and Argentina. Kerguelen (Naumann, 1874, M; Aubert, 1952, M)

Habitats: Creeping or hanging over banks in grass páramo, elev. 2500–4100 m. Most collections are from relatively dry páramos, but also several are from mossy bogs. The subterranean rhizomes seem to enable this species to survive in vegetation which is burned frequently.

Antioquia: Mun. Urrao, Páramo de Frontino, 3480 m, Santa 1182 (AAU). And. centr. Antioquia, 2500 m, Mayor 62 (S). Arauca: Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Quebrada El Playón, 3675 m, Cleef 10098 (U). Boyacá: Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Alto Ritacuva, 4090 m, Barclay & Juajibioy 7469 (MO). Nevado del Cocuy, Ritacuba, near Guicán, Laguna de San Pablino, and El Playón, 3550–3800 m, Bischler 2718 (G). Nevado del Cocuy, Ritacuba, near Guicán, Las Playitas, 3950 m, Bischler 2774 (G). Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Alto Valle Lagunillas, 72°24’W 6°20’N, 3970 m, Cleef 8773 (U). Páramos NW of of Belén, headwaters of Quebrada Minas, 3800 m, Cleef 1868 (AAU). Páramo al NW de Belén, vereda San José de la Montaña, Alto de las Cruces, 72°50’W 6°10’N, 3810 m, Cleef 1755 (U). Páramo de la Rusia, NW–N of Duitama, Serrania Peña Negra, 73°W 6°N, 3875 m, Cleef 7417 (U). Páramo de la Rusia, NW–N of Duitama, Serrania Peña Negra, 73°W 6°N, 3950 m, Cleef 7437 (AAU). Nevado del Cocuy, Las Lagunillas, Tabloncito, 3930 m, Cuatrecasas & Barriga 1583 (COL). Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Alto Valle Lagunillas, 3950 m, Cleef 5953 (AAU). Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Valle Los Corallitos, ca. 4100 m, Grubb & Guymer P18 (COL). Caldas: Cord. Central, W slope, headwaters of Río Otún, páramos between El Bosque and Plan de Villar, 3500–3650 m, Cuatrecasas 23280 (F, S). Nevado del Ruiz, road Manizales–Nevado, 3940 m, Santa & Hoyos 691 (AAU). Caldas/Tolima: Cord. Central, Nevado del Ruiz, between Termales, Nevado and Libano, 4050 m, Barclay & Juajibioy 6453 (COL, MO). Cauca: Macizo Colombiano, Valle de las Papas, near Valencia, 2910 m, Idrobo et al. 3629 (COL). Puracé, road to Parque Nacional de Puracé, 3180 m, Santa & S. Hoyos 717 (AAU). Totoró–Inza road, Páramo de Las Delicias, 3200 m, Santa et al. 978 (AAU, HUA). Cundinamarca: Boquerón de Chipaque, 3250 m, Schneider 720 (COL, S). Valle Grande, páramo between Coqua and San Cayetano, 3660 m, Cleef 6515 (AAU). Páramo de Sumapaz, Chisacá, 74°10’W 4°24’N, 3610 m, Cleef 4919 (U). Páramo de Sumapaz, Lagunitas S of San Juan, 3555 m, Cleef 8415 (AAU).

Magdalena: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, SE slopes, hoya del Río Donachuí, Meollaca, rocky slopes of Chitebo, 3450–3550 m, Cuatrecasas & Castañeda 24652 (COL). Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta , near headwaters of Río Sevilla, 3410 m, Barclay & Juajibioy 6664 (MO). Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Laguna Guiachina Copunameina , 4100 m, Mägdefrau 182 (COL). Meta: Páramo de Sumapaz, hoya de la Quebrada Sitiales, 74°10’W 4°N, 3450 m, Cleef 1082 (U, US). Tolima: Páramo del Ruiz, middle slopes, 4000 m, Barclay 5268 (COL)

Figures

FIGURE 3. Austrolycopodium magellanicum. A: Vegetative shootsystem with subterranean main stem (Bolivia: Hickey 811, AAU). B: Aerial strobiliferous branchlet system (Bolivia: Menhofer 1267, AAU)