Orthotrichum trachymitrium Mitt.

  • Authority

    Sharp, Aaron J., et al. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. Part Two: Orthotrichales to Polytrichales. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 69 (2)

  • Family

    Orthotrichaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Orthotrichum trachymitrium Mitt.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Plants 0.8-1.3 cm high, in delicate, loose to dense, olive-green tufts, often darker and radiculose below. Stems simple or 1-2 times-branched. Leaves loosely imbricate when dry, flexuose and wide-spreading when moist, 2.2-2.7 mm long, keeled, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, obtuse to bluntly acute, keeled below, ± flattened above, not decurrent; margins entire, reflexed below, often nearly to the apex; costa strong, ending just below the apex; upper cells 6-9 µm wide, rounded-quadrate to elliptic, smooth or low-papillose; basal cells rectangular to long-rectangular, hyaline. Gonioautoicous. Setae 2.8-3.0 mm long, from a naked vaginula. Capsules fully exserted, 1.9-2.1 mm long, cylindric, gradually contracted to the seta through a long neck, deeply 8-ribbed throughout, when old and dry contracted along the entire length, except for the ± flaring mouth; exothecial cells strongly differentiated along the entire length; stomata in the lower half of the urn immersed, half to completely covered by subsidiary cells; exostome teeth 8, broadly reflexed, finely and densely papillose; endostome segments 8, smooth, widened below, linear above, 2/3-3/4 as long as the exostome teeth. Spores 21-26 µm, papillose. Calyptrae oblong-conic to short-conic, smooth, naked, distinctly plicate, the plicae papillose, notched, or dentate along margin.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 467

    O. trachymitrium Mitt., J. Linn. Soc, Bot. 12: 183. 1869.

    O. patulum Mitt., J. Linn. Soc, Bot. 12: 184. 1869.

    O. emersulum C. Mull., Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. U, 4: 123. 1897.

    This species, only recently collected in Mexico, is distinguished by its relatively large size, immersed stomates, and exserted capsules that are cylindric and deeply 8-ribbed along their entire length. The leaves are blunt and loosely flexuose. T he most definitive feature is the unique calyptra with its papillose to dentate plicae. (For additional information, see Lewinsky, 1984.)

  • Distribution

    On tree trunk in a moist habitat; Chiapas.—Mexico; Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

    Mexico North America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Bolivia South America|