Trichostomum brachydontium Bruch

  • Authority

    Sharp, Aaron J., et al. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. Part One: Sphagnales to Bryales. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 69 (1): 1-452.

  • Family

    Pottiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Trichostomum brachydontium Bruch

  • Description

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    Species Description - Plants green above, brown below, up to 2.5 cm high. Leaves crowded, tubulose and incurved when dry, spreading up to 70° when moist, nearly flat to broadly concave, 2-2.5 (-3) mm long, ligulate to lanceolate, rounded to sharply acute at the apex; margins plane to erect; costa often very thick, short-excurrent as a stout mucro; upper cells subquadrate to hexagonal or short-rectangular, 6-9 µm wide and 1(-2):1, thin- to evenly thick-walled, each with 2-4 bifid to multifid papillae; basal cells differentiated across the insertion, rectangular, 9-13 µm wide and 2-4:1, thin-walled, hyahne. Dioicous. Setae 3.5-10 mm long; capsules 0.8-1.5 mm long, cylindric to broadly ellipsoidal; annulus of 1-2 rows of usually weakly vesiculose cells, persistent, fragmenting, or revoluble; operculum 0.5-0.8 mm long, conic; peristome teeth often rudimentary, 30-300 µm long, straight, ligulate to subulate, entire or 2-3-forked, yellow to red-brown, spiculose to minutely reticulate, with the basal membrane short or lacking. Spores 15-20 µm, strongly papillose.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 172

    T. brachydontiumBruch exF. Muell., Flora 12: 393. 1829.

    T. mutabile Bruch ex De Not., Syll. 192. 1838.

    Symblepharis jamaicensis C. Miill., Bull. Herb. Boissier 5: 555.1897.

    Hyophila mexicana Ther., Smithsonian Misc. Collect. 85(4): 13.1931.

    Didymodon planifolius P.-Varde & Ther., Rev. Bryol. Lichenol. 14: 11.1944.

    Robust plants resemble T. crispulum in having erect leaf margins and costa darker than the lamina (in mature leaves), but the stout, recurved mucro and leaf base not much differentiated in shape are diagnostic. The peristome is variable in development, and therefore certain South American plants lacking a peristome can probably be referred to T. brachydontium. (Such plants might be confused with Hyophila.) Small plants can generally be distinguished from Weissia by plane or erect leaf margins, in combination with a stout mucro (but see W. sinaloensis), and from Barbula convoluta by the smooth dorsal surface of the costa and deep yellow-orange color in 2 % KOH solution (as opposed to B. convoluta, which has a papillose costa and stains light yellow in KOH).

  • Distribution

    On soil, sometimes on roadbanks, 300-2500 m alt.; Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Distrito Federal, Durango, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Nuevo Leon, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala.—Mexico; Central and South America; West Indies; Texas; Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia.

    Asia| Australia Oceania| Africa| Europe| United States of America North America| West Indies| South America| Central America| Mexico North America|