Neckera urnigera Müll.Hal.

Authority

Buck, William R. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 82: 1-400.

Family

Neckeraceae

Scientific Name

Neckera urnigera Müll.Hal.

Description

Species Description - Plants medium-sized, mostly soft, in not or scarcely lustrous, pale-green colonies. Primary stems creeping and often projecting horizontally from substrate, to ca. 8 cm long, often much shorter, freely but irregularly branched, the branches ca. 1 cm long, complanate-foliate; in cross-section with 2-4 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding larger thinner-walled cells, becoming very thin-walled centrally, central strand none; paraphyllia sparse, filamentous, small ca. 0.085 mm long, 1-2-seriate below, 1-seriate above; pseudoparaphyllia broadly foliose; axillary hairs with (l-)2 short brown basal cells and 2(-3) elongate hyaline distal cells. Stem and branch leaves similar, spreading, little altered when dry, oblong-lanceolate, somewhat falciform and asymmetric, 2.5-3(-4.5, especially extralimitally) mm long, gradually or ± abruptly acute, undulate above, ± concave, decurrent; margins sparsely serrulate almost to base, plane on convex side, narrowly recurved on concave side; costa short and double; cells linear-subflexuose, smooth, firm-walled, obscurely porose; alar cells scarcely differentiated or a few quadrate and inframarginal. Asexual propagula none. Autoicous. Perichaetia conspicuous; leaves erect, convolute, oblong-lanceolate, the innermost ca. 2-2.3(-3) mm long, short-acuminate; margins subentire, plane; costa absent; cells linear, smooth, thick-walled, obscurely or not porose. Setae short, smooth, yellow, 2-2.5 mm long, vaginular hairs sparse, ca. 0.5 mm long; capsules exserted, cylindric, erect and symmetric, 1-1.5 mm long; exothecial cells short-rectangular, firm-walled, becoming smaller and oblate in 3-5 rows at the mouth; annulus not differentiated; operculum obliquely conic-rostrate, ca. 0.85 mm long; exostome teeth pale, linear-triangular, ca. 0.35 mm long, inserted below the mouth, not bordered or shouldered, on the front surface at very base (mostly below mouth) the plates obscurely and discontinuously cross-striolate, otherwise sparsely and finely papillose, not or scarcely trabeculate at back; endostome with a low, ± smooth basal membrane, segments ± smooth below, bluntly roughened above, keeled, not or very narrowly perforate, ca. as long as the teeth, cilia none. Spores spherical, sparsely high-papillose, 20-26 µm diam. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, ± smooth.

Discussion

Discussion. Neckera urnigera is relatively common in humid forests at higher elevations in Hispaniola. It is characterized by oblong-lanceolate, undulate leaves, with branch and stem leaves scarcely differentiated. The plants are almost always fertile and the capsules are distinctly exserted on short setae. The virtual lack of alar differentiation will help to separate the species from N. scabridens.

Distribution

Range. Mexico to Panama, Colombia and Venezuela to northwestern Argentina, southeastern Brazil; Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic);

Mexico North America| Central America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Argentina South America| Brazil South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America|