Fissidens
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Authority
Pursell, Ronald A. 2007. Fissidentaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 101 (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Fissidentaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Fissidens bryoides Hedw. (lectotype designated by E. Britton in Britton, FI. Bermuda 435. 1918). The name Fissidens is derived from two Latin roots (fissus = cleft + dens tooth), in reference to the peristome teeth that are divided for much of their length.
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Synonyms
Heterodon, Octodiceras, Skitophyllum, Schistophyllum, Conomitrium, Osmundula, Moenkemeyera, Pachyfissidens, Simplicidens, Nanobryum, Sainsburia
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Description
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Genus Description - Plants pale to dark green, infrequently brownish to blackish, terrestrial or aquatic, epilithic, corticolous, epixylic, and epizoic, erect but most often becoming decumbent, infrequently floating or trailing, scattered to tufted to forming dense mats; pro-tonemata usually ephemeral, infrequently persistent. Stem less than 1 mm to several cm in length, unbranched to branched profusely; rhizoids basal and axillary, typically smooth, infrequently papillose, tan to reddish; branches most often with basal rhizoids; axillary hyaline nodules present or absent; epidermis and outer cortical cells in transverse section usually small, incrassate, pigmented, rarely enlarged, thin-walled, hyaline; inner cortical cells larger, thin-walled, hyaline; central strand present or absent; axillary hairs uniseriate, filiform, all cells hyaline; axillary or epiphyllous, stalked, multicellular, filiform or clavate gemmae infrequent; subterranean, irregularly globose, multicellular, rhizoidal gemmae infrequent. Leaves distichous, equitant, pinnately arranged on elongate stems or palmately arranged on short stems, typically firmly attached to stem, infrequently caducous; perichaetial leaves often differentiated from cauline leaves, often largest, vaginant laminae often distally rounded or narrowed to the costa; cauline leaves of infertile stems often smaller than those on perichaetial stems; proximal cauline leaves smaller, often lacking dorsal and/or ventral lamina; costa usually well developed, ending far below leaf apex to excurrent, variable in structure, sometimes reduced, infrequently represented only by a proximal vestige; margin entire to serrate or dentate, marginal cells differing little or not at all from inner laminal cells, infrequently conspicuously smaller, often differentiated into a limbidium on vaginant laminae or to varying degrees on all laminae; limbidial cells uni-to pluristratose, usually prosenchymatous, usually yellowish; laminal cells mostly unistratose, sometimes regularly to irregularly bi- to pluristratose, small, quadrate, rounded to irregularly hexagonal, firm-walled, changing little upon drying, to large, quadrate to oblong to hexagonal or prosenchyma-tous, thin-walled, usually collapsed when dry, outer walls smooth, plane, bulging, mammillose (conical), unipapillose (sharply pointed) or pluripapillose, infrequently prorate, sometimes lenticularly (convexly) thickened, eguttulate or guttulate. Monoicous (rhizautoicous, gonioautoicous, cladautoicous, synoicous, polyoicous), infrequently dioicous, rarely pseudautoicous; naked antheridia and archegonia sometimes in leaf axils. Sporophytes 1-2 per perichaetium, infrequently of greater number, yellow when young, darkening with age, orange or reddish; seta short to elongate, smooth or infrequently papillose; theca immersed to exserted, erect, radially symmetric to inclined, ± arcuate, bilaterally symmetric, proximally stomatose, rarely estomatose; exothecial cells quadrate to oblong, vertical walls often thicker than horizontal walls, often collenchymatous, exannulate, but with an abscission zone; peristome haplolepideous, endostomate; operculum conic-rostrate, rostrum short or as long as theca, straight or oblique. Spores finely papillose to smooth, green. Calyptra cucullate or mitrate, smooth or sometimes prorate, naked, covering the entire operculum or only the rostrum, n= 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24 (Fritsch, 1991).