Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Schimp.

Authority

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

Family

Hylocomiaceae

Scientific Name

Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Schimp.

Description

Species Description - Plants rather robust and attractive, in loose, dull-green to golden-brown mats. Stems arcuate, wiry, reddish, 2-3-pinnate in horizontal fronds in stair-step-like, annual layers, each frondose branching system produced from an ascending stolon arising from near the middle of the previous year's growth, the branches usually tapered; in cross-section with 5-8 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding larger firm-walled cells, central strand none; paraphyllia abundant, conspicuous, branched, filamentous from a narrowly foliose base; pseudoparaphyllia broadly foliose; axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and 2-3 elongate hyaline distal cells. Stipe leaves clasping throughout; stem leaves erect, little altered when moist, broadly oblong-ovate, 2-3 mm long, abruptly tapered to an often long-flexuose acumen, concave, somewhat plicate, not auriculate; margins serrulate throughout, plane above, sometimes recurved below, often ± inflexed at base of acumen; costa absent, single or double on a single stem, most often double with one fork longer than the other and extending to midleaf; cells linear to linear-flexuose, sparsely prorulose at upper ends at back, thick-walled and porose throughout, becoming shorter, broader and thicker-walled below, colored and oblong across the insertion; alar cells scarcely differentiated. Primary branch leaves oblong-ovate, 1.1-1.5 mm long, gradually or abruptly acute to short-acuminate, secondary branch leaves oblong-lanceolate, 0.4-0.8 mm long, acute, concave; margins serrulate throughout, more densely so above, incurved above, plane below; costa short and double, rarely extending >1/3 the leaf length; areolation similar to stem leaves. [Sporophytes unknown in the West Indies; description from temperate material.] Perichaetial leaves erect, oblong-lanceolate, 2.75-4.25 mm long, gradually long and slenderly acuminate; margins serrulate in the acumen, entire below, plane; costa none; cells linear, smooth, thick-walled, porose, becoming shorter, broader and colored across the insertion. Setae elongate, not particularly slender, smooth, reddish, 1.2-2.5 cm long; capsules horizontal, broadly short-cylindric, orange-brown, 1.5-2.5 mm long; annulus of 2-3 rows of quadrate to oblong, thick-walled cells; operculum stoutly and obliquely rostrate, 1.52 mm long; exostome teeth on front surface reticulate or areolate below, papillose above, trabeculate at back; endostome finely papillose, basal membrane high, segments keeled, gaping, shorter than the teeth, cilia in groups of 2-4, nodulose, shorter than the segments. Spores spherical, finely papillose, 12-18 µm diam. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth.

Discussion

1. Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp. in Bruch, Schimp. & W. Gümbel, Bryol. Eur. 5(fasc. 4951, Monogr. 1): 173. 1852; Hypnum splendens Hedw., Sp. Musc. Frond. 262. 1801; Thuidium splendens (Hedw.) Brockm., Laubm. Meklenb. (Arch. Vereins Freunde Naturgesch. Mecklenburg 23:) 118. 1869; Pleurozium splendens (Hedw.) Mitt, in Melliss, St. Helena 364. 1875. Plate 133, figures 1-10 Hypnum proliferum Brid., Muscol. Recent. 2(2): 68. 1801, nom. illeg.; Hylocomium proliferum (Brid.) Lindb., Acta Soc. Sci. Fenn. 10: 20. 1870. Discussion. Hylocomium splendens is immediately recognizable by the stepwise, frondose growth form. The abundant paraphyllia and prorulose laminal cells are helpful criteria in depauperate forms.

Distribution

Range. North America, from Greenland to Alaska, south to Georgia and Colorado, Europe, across northern Asia to Japan, high elevations in central Africa; Jamaica; usually growing on soil or humus in moist, open forests, above 1000 m. The sole West Indian collection (Jamaica, s.loc., Ch. Mohr s.n., s.d., herb. Rau ex NY) is probably a case of mistaken locality information. To my knowledge, Mohr never collected in Jamaica and he has a reputation of having mislabeled specimens (Steere, 1945). The sp

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