Tortula stanfordensis Steere

  • 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

    Tortula stanfordensis Steere

  • Description

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    Species Description - Plants small, 1-10 mm high (1-2 mm in Mexican plants), scattered or in loose, yellow-green tufts. Leaves individually twisted and somewhat crisped when dry, wide-spreading when moist, 0.8-1.2(-3) mm long and 0.3-0.4(-0.6) mm wide, oblong-ovate or lingulate, acute; margins plane to somewhat reflexed in the lower part of the leaf, irregularly serrate near the apex (serrations not seen in Mexican plants); costa strong, yellow, smooth, ending a few cells below the apex, percurrent, or excurrent into an apiculus up to 5 cells long; upper cells 11-20 x 9-12 µm, quadrate to rectangular, thin-walled, with 4-6 papillae per cell; cells of the border long-rectangular to linear, in several rows, thicker-walled, yellow, hyaline but bearing papillae, usually bistratose, the border often ending before the apex; basal cells gradually differentiated, linear at the margins. Dioicous. (Sporophytes and male plants unknown in the Western Hemisphere; description based on Smith & Whitehouse, 1974: Setae ca. 2 mm long, reddish-brown; capsules ca. 2 mm long, slightly inclined, narrowly ellipsoidal, with neck gradually tapered to the seta, brown; operculum ca. 0.4 mm long; peristome lacking. Spores 20-22 µm, finely and bluntly papillose.)

  • Discussion

    Fig. 245

    T. stanfordensis Steere, Bryologist 54: 119. 1951.

    Hyophila stanfordensis (Steere) Smith & Whiteh., J. Bryol. 8: 13. 1974.

    The above description is based on plants from throughout the world range. The species is known in Mexico from a single specimen consisting of rather small and perhaps immature plants, and the only important difference is the apparent lack of apical teeth at the leaf margins. Tortula leiostoma is somewhat similar, although ecologically and geographically very different; it has more lanceolate and acuminate leaves, stronger borders of completely smooth cells, autoicous sexuality, and larger spores.

  • Distribution

    Rare, on disturbed and exposed soil at low elevations; Guerrero (Eckel 8605131, BUF, DUKE). Mexico; California; Great Britain.

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