Hypnaceae
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Authority
Buck, William R. 2003. Guide to the plants of central french Guiana. Part 3. Mosses. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-167.
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Family
Hypnaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
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Genus Description - Plants small to robust, in often lustrous, green to golden, sometimes reddish, lax or dense mats; stems mostly creeping, sometimes ascending or rarely erect, irregularly branched to regularly pinnate, sometimes complanate- foliate, rarely julaceous, in cross- section sometimes with a hyalodermis. Stem and branch leaves mostly similar, typically homomallous to falcate - secund, occasionally complanate, linear to broadly oblong- ovate, but typically lanceolate- ovate often asymmetric, obtuse to acuminate, often concave, rarely plicate, sometimes decurrent; margins entire to serrulate, rarely serrate, plane, recurved or incurved, rarely limbate; costa short and double or absent; cells mostly linear, occasionally shorter, usually smooth, rarely prorulose or papillose, mostly cylindrical to fusiform, uniseriate, and clustered in leaf axils. Autoicous or dioicous. Setae elongate, mostly smooth, usually reddish; capsules inclined to horizontal, sometimes erect, mostly asymmetric, arcuate or straight, ovoid to long-cylindric, usually smooth, often constricted below the mouth when dry and empty; peristome typically double, the endostome rarely lacking, exostome teeth on the front surface cross- striolate below, coarsely papillose above, sometimes reduced and papillose throughout or even ± smooth; endostome mostly with a high, or rarely low basal membrane, segments broad or rarely narrow, keeled, usually perforate, about as long as the teeth, cilia mostly in groups of 1-3 or rarely absent. Calyptrae cucullate, usually naked, rarely hairy, usually smooth. The Hypnaceae are defined by plants with leaves typically, but far from always, homomallous to falcate- secund, with a short, double costa and alar cells often differentiated. The peristome is typically well developed with the exostome teeth cross- striolate on the front surface; the endostome has ahigh basal membrane, broad segments, and cilia. However, any of the peristomial features may be reduced when the capsule is erect and the plants are corticolous. The family is very heterogenous and is little more than those Hypnalean pleurocarps with a short, double costa that have no been placed in other families.