Campylium stellatum (Hedw.) C.E.O.Jensen

Authority

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

Family

Campyliaceae

Scientific Name

Campylium stellatum (Hedw.) C.E.O.Jensen

Description

Species Description - Plants slender to medium-sized, in soft, ± lustrous, yellow-green to golden or yellow-brown, loose or dense mats or sometimes tufts. Stems creeping or, usually, ascending, to ca. 5 cm long, but often only 2-3 cm, irregularly branched; in cross-section with 24 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding larger firm-walled cells, becoming thinner-walled toward the small-celled thin-walled central strand; paraphyllia absent; pseudoparaphyllia broadly foliose; axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and (l-)2-3(-4) elongate hyaline distal cells. Stem and branch leaves scarcely differentiated, crowded, wide-spreading to squarrose from a slightly appressed base, broadly ovate, 1-1.56-2.5) mm long, usually ± abruptly slenderly acuminate, channeled, concave, cordate at base, decurrent; margins subentire to crenulate throughout, plane to erect; costa mostly short and double, sometimes absent, occasionally single and reaching midleaf or below; cells long-hexagonal to linear with blunt ends, 10-15:1, smooth, thick-walled, porose; alar cells differentiated in extreme angles, not reaching the costa, excavate, short-rectangular or sometimes subquadrate, often thick-walled, not or scarcely porose, enlarged, not inflated, colored. Asexual propagula none. Dioicous. Perichaetia enlarged, conspicuous; leaves erect, sheathing, oblong-lanceolate, to ca. 3.5 mm long, long-acuminate, somewhat striate; margins entire to distantly denticulate above, occasionally with a few coarse teeth at the base of the acumen, sometimes undulate below but otherwise entire, plane to erect; costa usually single, ending above midleaf; cells linear, smooth, thick-walled, ± porose, becoming broader and thinner-walled toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Setae elongate, smooth, orange to dark-red, to ca. 2 cm long, not twisted, mostly straight; capsules inclined to horizontal, arcuate, asymmetric, cylindric, to ca. 2.5 mm long, with a distinct, sometimes striate neck; exothecial cells short-rectangular, thin- to firm-walled; annulus of 3-4 rows of firm-walled, quadrate to short-rectangular cells, smaller than those of the exothecium; operculum shortly conic-rostrate; exostome teeth yellow-brown, shouldered, strongly bordered, on the front surface cross-striolate below, coarsely but sparsely papillose to almost smooth above, trabeculate at back; endostome smooth to finely papillose with a high basal membrane, segments keeled, perforate, cilia in groups of 2-3, almost as long as the segments, appendiculate. Spores spherical, slightly roughened, 8.5-12 µm diam. (apparently larger in extra-limital populations). Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth.

Discussion

3. Campylium stellatum (Hedw.) C. E. O. Jensen, Meddel. Gr0nland 3: 328. 1887; Hypnum stellatum Hedw., Sp. Muse. Frond. 280. 1801; Amblystegium stellatum (Hedw.) Lindb., Musci Scand. 32. 1879; Chrysohypnum stellatum (Hedw.) Loeske, Moosfl. Harz. 303. 1903; Campyliadelphus stellatus (Hedw.) Kanda, J. Sci. Hiroshima Univ., Ser. B, Div. 2, Bot. 15: 269. 1975 [1976]. Plate 84, figures 1-9 Discussion. Campylium stellatum is recognized by the mostly short double costa and the well-defined alar cells on squarrosely spreading leaves. Like C. chrysophyllum, the upper laminal cells are thick-walled and porose and the acumina are channeled. In that species, though, the costa is mostly single. I see no value in the so-called var. protensum (Brid.) Bryhn, sometimes even recognized at the species level. Out material seems intermediate between C. stellatum and C. protensum (Brid.) Kindb. Like typical C. stellatum, our plants have crowded leaves, usually spreading from a suberect base; however, like “protensumWest Indian material is usually smallish, with abruptly acuminate leaves. Perhaps the '*protensum’ expression has some value over part of the range of C. stellatum, such as central Europe, but seemingly not in North America or Scandinavia.

Distribution

Range. Greenland to Alaska, south to New Mexico and Georgia, northern Central America, Europe, northern Asia; Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), Guadeloupe; often growing on trail banks and in other exposed, weedy habitats, usually above 1000 m.

Greenland North America| Canada North America| United States of America North America| Central America| Europe| Russia Asia| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Guadeloupe South America|