Ptychomitrium leibergii Best

  • 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

    Ptychomitriaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Ptychomitrium leibergii Best

  • Description

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    Species Description - Small plants in dense, rigid, dark-green, blackish, or brownish tufts, 3-5 (sometimes 13) mm high. Leaves subtubulose and strongly crisped and contorted when dry, erectspreading and ± concave when moist, 2.5-4 mm long, oblong-lanceolate from a short, oblong base, bluntly acute, not plicate at base; margins erect, entire; costa subpercurrent, red-brown; upper cells about 9-12 µm wide, rounded-quadrate or subhexagonal, often oblate-quadrate, firm-walled, bistratose in longitudinal streaks and at the margins; basal cells subquadrate or short-rectangular, firm-walled, palebrown to hyaline. Setae single, 4-5 mm long, yellow, becoming red-brown with age; capsules 1.2-1.5 mm long, oblong-ellipsoidal, yellow- or orange-brown, wrinkled when dry; annulus large; operculum about 1 mm long; peristome teeth relatively short, ± perforate or forked, joined at base, orange-brown, coarsely papillose. Spores 17-20 µm, papillose. Calyptrae not scabrous above.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 308

    P. leibergii Best, Bryologist 9: 80. 1906.

    Essential characters include bluntly acute leaves with erect, entire margins and upper cells bistratose in streaks and plane at the surface. Ptychomitrium standleyi has opaque leaves with upper cells smaller, bistratose throughout, and bulging on the upper surface.

    A record of this species from Zacatecas (Delgadillo & Cardenas, 1979) has been corrected to P. chimborazense (Delgadillo & Cardenas, 1987).

  • Distribution

    On rock (most often calcareous) in dry places, at altitudes of 1100-1200 m alt.; Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Tamaulipas.—Mexico; southwestern United States (Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and Arizona).

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