Tortula papillosissima (Copp.) Broth.

  • 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 papillosissima (Copp.) Broth.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Plants moderately robust, 10-25 mm high, in loose, yellow-brown to black tufts. Leaves clasping at base, infolded and twisted around the stem w h e n dry, squarrose-recurved when moist, 2.5-4 mm long, 1-1.6 mm wide, lingulate-ovate, canaliculate to keeled, obtuse to acute; margins tightly revolute in the lower 3/4-7/8, entire; costa strong, yellow-brown, strongly papillose at back and serrate because of projecting cell ends, excurrent into a serrate, hyaline hair point that is often brown (or sometimes broadly hyaline) at base; upper cells 11-18 µm, quadrate to polygonal, thick-walled and sometimes collenchymatous, with tall, bulging sahents, bearing 1-2 papillae per cell; basal cells abruptly differentiated, rectangular, 45-90 x 15-23 µm, quadrate to narrowly rectangular at the margins. Dioicous. Setae 12-18 mm long, brown; capsules 3-5 mm long, curved, with an abrupt neck, brown; operculum ca. 2 mm long, brown; peristome ca. 1.8 mm long, the upper divisions yellow-brown, twisted ca. 2 turns, the basal membrane white, ca. 1/2 the total length. Spores 10-14 µm, papillose. Calyptrae 4-5 mm long, brown.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 258

    T. papillosissima (Coppey) Broth, in E. & P., Nat. Pfl. 1(3): 1196. 1909.

    Barbula ruralis var. hirsuta Vent., Rev. Bryol. 17: 52. 1890.

    Tortula ruralis var. hirsuta (Vent.) Par., Index Bryol. ed. 2,5:57.1906.

    Barbula papillosissima Coppey, Bull. Soc. Sci. Nancy HI, 8: 314. 1908.

    Superficially, Tortula papillosissima is similar to a robust T. ruralis, differing most conspicuously in the extremely tall salients on the upper leaf cells, each crowned by only one or two papillae, unlike the shorter bulging cell surface bearing four or five papillae characterizing other species in the T. ruralis complex. Tortula papillosissima also has larger upper leaf cells, more pellucid than those of T. ruralis.

  • Distribution

    Rare and montane, on dry soil and rock; Coahuila (Whittemore 2644, MEXU), Nuevo Leon (Whittemore 2356, DUKE).—Northeastern Mexico; western North America; Mediterranean Europe; central Asia.

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