Neckera menziesii, , Guerra, 2014

Neckera menziesii ( Fig. 5E–J)

Pellucid area around bud is apparent in younger stems ( Fig. 5E, G, I), bluish or pinkish of fuchsine, not brownish of indigocarmin ( Fig. 5F, H, J). The border of pellucid area in some young shoots is the place of foliose structures, traditionally referred to pseudoparaphyllia. Having a position identical with the proximal branch leaves in the above discussed species ( Figs. 3–4), foliose structures around the buds of N. menziesii are arranged more evenly and it is usually impossible to attribute to them numbers of leaves (= numbers of the branch merophytes). Paraphyllia of Leskea - type are numerous around the bud and near. Sometimes they occur shortly above the leaf axil, in a position where the branch bud is usually developed (arrowed in Fig. 5F, J). In thick stems, the paraphyllia are arranged partly intermingled with the larger proximal branch leaves that form an imperfect ring around the bud. These outermost large lanceolate proximal branch leaves have at their bases large teeth or sometimes small lobes ( Fig. 5I). The abundance of paraphyllia close to branch primordia is obvious. Neckera menziesii was circumscribed by Lawton (1971) as a species with paraphyllia; Guerra (2014) mentioned numerous branched pseudoparaphyllia, while paraphyllia were mentioned by him as occurring in the genus, without mentioning them for particular species.

Neckera chilensis Schimp. is similar in paraphyllia presence to N. humilis , while N. himalayana Mitt. and N. flexiramea Cardot to Exsertotheca crispa .

The anomalous size and position of the dormant buds inspired us to look for the explanation of their structure, or at least characters that are associated with these unusual features. We undertook anatomical sections of buds of Exertotheca ( Figs. 7A–D, 8–11) and also compared the bud position in Neckera and other groups of pleurocarps ( Figs. 7E–H).