Philonotis sphaericarpa (Hedw.) Brid.

  • 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

    Bartramiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Philonotis sphaericarpa (Hedw.) Brid.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Plants small to rather robust (1-3 cm high), in ± dense, light- to yellow-green tufts, tomentose below, erect, straight. Leaves rather stiffly erect to erect-spreading, 1.2-2 mm long, narrowly ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate; margins revolute (often broadly so) and sharply serrate nearly to the base, the teeth paired; costa long-excurrent as a denticulate point, distinctly scabrous at back; upper cells rectangular to sublinear up to 25 µm long, 4-6 µm wide, papillose at upper ends; basal cells laxer, up to 40 µm long, 7-8 µm wide. Dioicous. Setae straight, 1.5-3 cm long; capsules inclined to cernuous, 1.5-2 mm long, subglobose, furrowed; operculum low-conic; exostome teeth 350-400 µm long, lanceolate, reddish, granulose below, coarsely papillose above; endostome segments nearly as long as the exostome, keeled, yellowish, papillose below, coarsely so above, the cilia coherent. Spores 20-25 µm, reniform, papillose.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 426

    P. sphaericarpa (Hedw.) Brid., Bryol. Univ. 2: 25.1827.

    Mnium sphaericarponHedw., Sp. Muse 197. 1801.

    Bartramia sphaericarpa (Hedw.) P.-Beauv., Prodr. Aetheog. 44.1805.

    Philonotis sphaericarpa var. latirevoluta Card., Rev. Bryol. 38: 36. 1911.

    Philonotis sphaericarpa has a dioicous sexual condition, rather long setae, and long-excurrent, rough costae. More robust than P. bernoullii, it resembles P. uncinata var. giaucescens in having essentially straight stems (not hooked at the tips), but the plants are larger and the costa excurrent.

  • Distribution

    On moist soil or rocks from near sea level to middle elevations; Chiapas, Durango, Hidalgo, Michoacan, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Veracruz.—Mexico to South America; West Indies; southeastern United States.

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