Wittlake, Eugene B.

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Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 4 Article 111951Preliminary Report on the Hepaticae of ArkansasEugene B. WittlakeUniversity of Arkansas, FayettevilleFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Botany CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academyof Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationWittlake, Eugene B. (1951) "Preliminary Report on the Hepaticae of Arkansas," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 4 ,Article 11.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol4/iss1/1165PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE HEPATICAE OFARKANSAS*EUGENE B. WITTLAKEUniversity of ArkansasThe Hepaticae, occurring in Arkansas, have never received any partic-ular attention from the various students in the field of Bryology. Thisbecame very obvious to me as soon as a search was made for more infor-mation about these plants, in national works on the Bryophytes. Thissurvey, which embraces material from every county in the state, Ihope,will serve to stimulate interest among the growing list of collectors inArkansas. This willbe facilitated considerably by the publication of anillustrated, identification manual on the Hepaticae of Arkansas, that willfollow.Before digressing further on the various aspects of this study, Iwishto state that to inject any finality as to distribution data, or number ofspecies would indeed be very premature at this time. Iconsider it ratheras a mere start or beginning, for the manual itself willbe a semi-technicalone, purposely so prepared, that it may be available for use by a greaternumber of individuals.The Hepaticae are usually considered our most primitive, green landplants. They are most frequently referred to as the Liverworts. They areconsidered less advanced than the mosses, due to the simplicity of theirsporophytes and the general habit characteristics of the gametophyticphase toward dorsalventrality.Among leading authorities of the group, there is great diversification ofopinion as to their exact evolution and origin. Smith (4) believes they orig-inated from a ulotrichaceous line of Algae. Campbell" ) proposes that theorigin of both Bryophytes and Pteridophytes arose from an Anthoceroteancomplex, and that Sphaerocarpus, Riccardia and Pellia are the livingmembers of the Hepaticae which are the closest to ancestors of the Liver-worts. Frye and Clark (s) have proposed that both Chara, a green alga, andthe Hepaticae arose from the same ancestral type; then in their evolution,a second and a hepatopterid ancestral type was involved, at which pointthe wide divergence of Hepaticae and Pteridophytes began. Evans (I> andseveral others believe the ancestral types were leafy, erect, and that thepresent-day thalloid types are the result of a regressive evolution, but inthe final analysis, they represent a polyphyletic group, derived from severalto many ancestral algae types.In the preliminary stages of a study of this kind, primarily taxonomicin nature, one usually concentrates on the appearance of new kinds orspecies of the plants sought, which have not yet come to the student'sattention. In the next stage, one arrives at the point, where certain typicalspecies of the various habitats, become an automatic association. The"Research Paper No. 1003 Journal Series. University of Arkansas.65Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 195166ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCEA--third stage comes when the whole Biological world crashes down aroundthe group of intensive study, and all the organisms in their environment,suddenly take on new meaning, which at the beginning were totally in thebackground, and held no meaning. Finally, one notices in the search fornew species, not only climatic, atmospheric and soil conditions, but alsobiotic factors involved. Due to the fact that these lowly plants grow inclose association with the soil and have no specialized tissue to functionas an effective water—conduction system, they are subjected to a greatvariety of minute organisms, both plant and animal, that live on them, feedon them, are parasitic on them, or live inside of them as parasites orsymbionts.Therefore, this taxonomic study has become a rich field for observationsof many other groups of cryptogamic plants. Actually when one is in thefield, there is many times the problem of trying to decide whether an or-ganism is a lichen, a moss, an algal mass, a protonemal mass or a liver-wort. The association of certain fungi and algae has been the most strikingfinding.The State of Arkansas, with its variable topography including its moun-tains and valleys, the coastal plain, and the Mississippi River Basin, offersthe maximum possibilities as to the number of species of Hepaticae. Al-ready the number of species recorded in this study is very close to onehundred. Yet Ifeel that only the surface has been touched. Many of theareas visited were not intensively worked because time did not permit.The number of species of Hepaticae, reported for Arkansas innational worksis 22. One of these is Asterella echinella not yet found in the presentsearch. Another, Marchantia domingensis, has not been found. The latterwas collected by Harvey, the first Professor of Biology at the University,in 1880; this specimen is now in the New YorkBotanical Garden Herbarium.Comparing the number of species of Hepaticae here with the number,found in many other states, Arkansas is already high on the list. Certainliverworts have been found with sporophytes, which in Frye and Clark'sworkts) are reported "sporophytes unknown." These are among the speciesof Frullania which were collected last December in the southern countiesof the State.One of the most unusual finds was Petalophyllum lamellatum, collectedin "April of this year about % mile north of the Arkansas-Louisiana lineabove Junction City. This liverwort has only been collected in one otherstate, Texas according to Frye and Clark.(3)* Other sites of collection re-ported are Wales, Europe and Africa.The 300 odd stations or places of collection range from Eudora to BellaVista and from Piggott to Emerson in this study's coverage of Arkansas.(Fig. 1.) The greater part of the collecting was done in 1949. During thelatter year, approximately 11,000 miles were travelled on specific collectingtrips, in pursuit of a more complete coverage of the State; this was carriedts)*page i5o, Vol. VI, No. 1.66Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol4/iss1/111THE HEPATICAE OF ARKANSAS 67-FIGURE 1. Distribution map of stations*out by the author alone and does not represent the mileage of additionalcollectors. Such intensive coverage was aided considerably by a jointgrant from the Institute of Science and Technology and the College of Artsand Sciences of the University of Arkansas.Among the contributors of specimens for the work were Dr. D. M. Moore,Mr. Robert Whitmire of Fort Smith, Miss Inez Hartsoe of Piggott, and Mr.Robert French of Fayetteville who together have provided about 20 percent of the total count. Important but fewer specimens have been sent inby Dr. Delzie Demaree of Jonesboro, Mr. John Pay of Des Arc, and MissFrances Bruehl of Fayetteville to augment those already contributed beforethe study began by Dr. J. Buchholz of the University of Illinois and Pro-fessor A.D. Oxley of Lambeth College, Jackson, Tennessee.Dr. A. W. Evans of Yale University has done confirmation work on thePrullanias collected. Dr. Ronald McGregor of the University of Kansas hasworked on the identification and confirmation of Riccias collected. Dr.Margaret Fulford of the University of Cincinnati has additional specimensfor confirmation work.*Places where Hepaticae were collected.67Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 195168ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCEIn addition, Mrs. Wittlake has spent many hours boxing and preparingspecimens for the Herbarium, compiling statistics which willappear in theAppendix of the published manual, and combing the literature for any mentionof Arkansas in the Bryophyte field and preparing the supporting bibliography.LITERATURE CITED1. Campbell, D. H., 1936. The relationships of the Hepaticae. Bot. Rev. 2: 53-66.2. Evans, A. W., 1939. The classification of the Hepaticae. Bot. Rev. 5: 49-96.3. Frye, T. C. and Lois Clark, 1937-1947. Hepaticae of North America. Univ. ofWash. Pub. in Biol. University of Washington Press, Seattle, Wash. VI:Nos. 1-5.4. Smith, G. M., 1938. Cryptogamic Botany. Bryophytes and Pteridophytes.II:380 pp.68Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol4/iss1/11

Preliminary Report on the Hepaticae of Arkansas

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Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 4 Article 11 1951 Preliminary Report on the Hepaticae of Arkansas Eugene B. Wittlake University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Botany Commons Recommended Citation Wittlake, Eugene B. (1951) "Preliminary Report on the Hepaticae of Arkansas," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 4 , Article 11. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol4/iss1/11 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. 65PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE HEPATICAE OFARKANSAS*EUGENE B. WITTLAKEUniversity of ArkansasThe Hepaticae, occurring in Arkansas, have never received any partic-ular attention from the various students in the field of Bryology. Thisbecame very obvious to me as soon as a search was made for more infor-mation about these plants, in national works on the Bryophytes. Thissurvey, which embraces material from every county in the state, Ihope,will serve to stimulate interest among the growing list of collectors inArkansas. This willbe facilitated considerably by the publication of anillustrated, identification manual on the Hepaticae of Arkansas, that willfollow.Before digressing further on the various aspects of this study, Iwishto state that to inject any finality as to distribution data, or number ofspecies would indeed be very premature at this time. Iconsider it ratheras a mere start or beginning, for the manual itself willbe a semi-technicalone, purposely so prepared, that it may be available for use by a greaternumber of individuals.The Hepaticae are usually considered our most primitive, green landplants. They are most frequently referred to as the Liverworts. They areconsidered less advanced than the mosses, due to the simplicity of theirsporophytes and the general habit characteristics of the gametophyticphase toward dorsalventrality.Among leading authorities of the group, there is great diversification ofopinion as to their exact evolution and origin. Smith (4) believes they orig-inated from a ulotrichaceous line of Algae. Campbell" ) proposes that theorigin of both Bryophytes and Pteridophytes arose from an Anthoceroteancomplex, and that Sphaerocarpus, Riccardia and Pellia are the livingmembers of the Hepaticae which are the closest to ancestors of the Liver-worts. Frye and Clark (s) have proposed that both Chara, a green alga, andthe Hepaticae arose from the same ancestral type; then in their evolution,a second and a hepatopterid ancestral type was involved, at which pointthe wide divergence of Hepaticae and Pteridophytes began. Evans (I> andseveral others believe the ancestral types were leafy, erect, and that thepresent-day thalloid types are the result of a regressive evolution, but inthe final analysis, they represent a polyphyletic group, derived from severalto many ancestral algae types.In the preliminary stages of a study of this kind, primarily taxonomicin nature, one usually concentrates on the appearance of new kinds orspecies of the plants sought, which have not yet come to the student'sattention. In the next stage, one arrives at the point, where certain typicalspecies of the various habitats, become an automatic association. The"Research Paper No. 1003 Journal Series. University of Arkansas.65Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 195166ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCEA--third stage comes when the whole Biological world crashes down aroundthe group of intensive study, and all the organisms in their environment,suddenly take on new meaning, which at the beginning were totally in thebackground, and held no meaning. Finally, one notices in the search fornew species, not only climatic, atmospheric and soil conditions, but alsobiotic factors involved. Due to the fact that these lowly plants grow inclose association with the soil and have no specialized tissue to functionas an effective water—conduction system, they are subjected to a greatvariety of minute organisms, both plant and animal, that live on them, feedon them, are parasitic on them, or live inside of them as parasites orsymbionts.Therefore, this taxonomic study has become a rich field for observationsof many other groups of cryptogamic plants. Actually when one is in thefield, there is many times the problem of trying to decide whether an or-ganism is a lichen, a moss, an algal mass, a protonemal mass or a liver-wort. The association of certain fungi and algae has been the most strikingfinding.The State of Arkansas, with its variable topography including its moun-tains and valleys, the coastal plain, and the Mississippi River Basin, offersthe maximum possibilities as to the number of species of Hepaticae. Al-ready the number of species recorded in this study is very close to onehundred. Yet Ifeel that only the surface has been touched. Many of theareas visited were not intensively worked because time did not permit.The number of species of Hepaticae, reported for Arkansas innational worksis 22. One of these is Asterella echinella not yet found in the presentsearch. Another, Marchantia domingensis, has not been found. The latterwas collected by Harvey, the first Professor of Biology at the University,in 1880; this specimen is now in the New YorkBotanical Garden Herbarium.Comparing the number of species of Hepaticae here with the number,found in many other states, Arkansas is already high on the list. Certainliverworts have been found with sporophytes, which in Frye and Clark'sworkts) are reported "sporophytes unknown." These are among the speciesof Frullania which were collected last December in the southern countiesof the State.One of the most unusual finds was Petalophyllum lamellatum, collectedin "April of this year about % mile north of the Arkansas-Louisiana lineabove Junction City. This liverwort has only been collected in one otherstate, Texas according to Frye and Clark.(3)* Other sites of collection re-ported are Wales, Europe and Africa.The 300 odd stations or places of collection range from Eudora to BellaVista and from Piggott to Emerson in this study's coverage of Arkansas.(Fig. 1.) The greater part of the collecting was done in 1949. During thelatter year, approximately 11,000 miles were travelled on specific collectingtrips, in pursuit of a more complete coverage of the State; this was carriedts)*page i5o, Vol. VI, No. 1.66Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol4/iss1/111THE HEPATICAE OF ARKANSAS 67-FIGURE 1. Distribution map of stations*out by the author alone and does not represent the mileage of additionalcollectors. Such intensive coverage was aided considerably by a jointgrant from the Institute of Science and Technology and the College of Artsand Sciences of the University of Arkansas.Among the contributors of specimens for the work were Dr. D. M. Moore,Mr. Robert Whitmire of Fort Smith, Miss Inez Hartsoe of Piggott, and Mr.Robert French of Fayetteville who together have provided about 20 percent of the total count. Important but fewer specimens have been sent inby Dr. Delzie Demaree of Jonesboro, Mr. John Pay of Des Arc, and MissFrances Bruehl of Fayetteville to augment those already contributed beforethe study began by Dr. J. Buchholz of the University of Illinois and Pro-fessor A.D. Oxley of Lambeth College, Jackson, Tennessee.Dr. A. W. Evans of Yale University has done confirmation work on thePrullanias collected. Dr. Ronald McGregor of the University of Kansas hasworked on the identification and confirmation of Riccias collected. Dr.Margaret Fulford of the University of Cincinnati has additional specimensfor confirmation work.*Places where Hepaticae were collected.67Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 195168ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCEIn addition, Mrs. Wittlake has spent many hours boxing and preparingspecimens for the Herbarium, compiling statistics which willappear in theAppendix of the published manual, and combing the literature for any mentionof Arkansas in the Bryophyte field and preparing the supporting bibliography.LITERATURE CITED1. Campbell, D. H., 1936. The relationships of the Hepaticae. Bot. Rev. 2: 53-66.2. Evans, A. W., 1939. The classification of the Hepaticae. Bot. Rev. 5: 49-96.3. Frye, T. C. and Lois Clark, 1937-1947. Hepaticae of North America. Univ. ofWash. Pub. in Biol. University of Washington Press, Seattle, Wash. VI:Nos. 1-5.4. Smith, G. M., 1938. Cryptogamic Botany. Bryophytes and Pteridophytes.II:380 pp.68Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 4 [1951], Art. 11https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol4/iss1/11

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Preliminary Report on the Hepaticae of Arkansas

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