Anastrophyllopsis
Terrestrial, lithophytic and epiphytic, dioecious. Asexual reproduction by 2-celled gemmae produced on leaf surfaces near shoot apices. Stems differentiated into erect, occasionally forking leafy stems with two ranks of lateral leaves and leafless prostrate stems; branches emerging from main stems from next to lateral leaves and with a collar of tissue at base. Lateral leaves oblate-ovate to reniform in outline, retuse (not in Victoria) or bilobed to around half the length of leaf, secund in direction of adaxial stem, succubous toward abaxial attachment, becoming transverse toward adaxial attachment, alternate, imbricate, entire or with scattered isolated teeth, incurved (not in Victoria), plane or recurved (not in Victoria) at margin; lobes triangular, acute, acuminate or apiculate, usually asymmetric with the lobe attached to the adaxial side of the stem smaller. Leaf cells irregular away from margins, circular, oblong or quadrate at margins and sometimes away from margins (not in Victoria), more elongate toward basal centre, striately papillose, thin-walled, with large and often confluent trigones except at leaf margin, unistratose, with 2–3 (–6) oil bodies; oil bodies ellipsoid to spherical, coarsely granular, colourless. Rhizoids confined to prostrate, leafless stems. Androecia becoming intercalary on stems or main branches, with up to 5 pairs of leaf-like, but more ventricose, bracts, each with 2–3 antheridia. Sporophyte terminal on main stem or branches, developing within a perianth; perianth ellipsoid to fusiform, plicate for most of length, with lobulate and dentate to ciliate mouth; capsule ellipsoid, 4–5-stratose; elaters bispiral; spores globose, papillose, reddish brown.
Three species, one in Malesia to New Caledonia, one in Chile and one, A. subcomplicata (Lehm. & Lindenb.) Váňa & L. Söderstr., in southern South America, New Zealand, Tasmania and Victoria (Váňa et al. 2013).
Anastrophyllopsis has been placed in the Cephaloziellaceae in the World Checklist of Liverworts (Söderström et al. 2016). However, a chloroplast DNA phylogeny show that this genus is misplaced in Lophoziaceae and is instead likely to be closely related to Andrewsianthus R.M.Schust., Chaetophyllopsis R.M.Schust. and Gottschelia Grolle (Bakalin et al. 2024). Consequently, Anastrophyllopsis is placed here in the Chaetophyllopsidaceae. This placement is tentatively adopted for the need to place Anastrophyllopsis in a family and the lack of a better alternative. Anastrophyllopsis and Chaetophyllopsis differ significantly morphologically and it is likely that Chaetophyllopsidaceae is paraphyletic if Anastrophyllopsis is included (Bakalin et al. 2024). Relationships among genera in this group of liverworts (suborder Cephaloziinae) are mostly based on few DNA regions and are in need of confirmation. It is likely that additional families will require description to accommodate some genera in suborder Cephaloziinae, including Anastrophyllopsis, once phylogenetic relationships in this group are better resolved.
Bakalin, V.A., Vilnet, A.A., Klimova, K.G., Nguyen, V.S. & Choi, S.S. (2024). Gottschelia (Gottscheliaceae, Marchantiophyta) in Indochina. Plants 13 (16): 2198.
Söderström, L., Hagborg, A., von Konrat, M., Bartholomew-Began, S., Bell, D., Briscoe, L., Brown, E., Cargill, D.C., Costa, D.P., Crandall-Stotler, B.J., Cooper, E.D., Dauphin, G., Engel, J.J., Feldberg, K., Glenny, D., Gradstein, S.R., He, X., Heinrichs, J., Hentschel, J., Ilkiu-Borges, A.L., Katagiri, T., Konstantinova, N.A., Larraín, J., Long, D.G., Nebel, M., Pócs, T., Puche, F., Reiner-Drehwald, E., Renner, M.A.M., Sass-Gyarmati, A., Schäfer-Verwimp, A., Moragues, J.S., Stotler, R.E., Sukkharak, P., Thiers, B.M., Uribe, J., Váňa, J., Villarreal, J.C., Wigginton, M., Zhang, L. & Zhu, R. (2016). World checklist of hornworts and liverworts. Phytokeys 59: 1–828.
Váňa, J., Söderström, L., Hagborg, A. & von Konrat, M. (2013). Notes on early land plants today. 30. Transfer of some taxa from Anastrophyllum (Anastrophyllaceae, Marchantiophyta). Phytotaxa 81: 15–18.