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bartramia moss, rigid apple moss

Habit Plants in dense tufts, glaucous to brownish green. Plants small to large, in lax to dense tufts.
Stems

1–3 cm.

erect or sometimes decumbent, simple, 2-fid, fastigiate, or with subfloral whorl of branches, usually tomentose proximally.

Leaves

stiffly erect-appressed when dry, erect-spreading when moist, narrowly lanceolate, 2.5–4 mm;

base not sheathing, shoulders absent;

margins recurved from near base to distal acumen, serrulate distally, teeth single;

apex narrowly aristate;

costa excurrent, abaxially prominent, distal abaxial surface rough;

basal laminal cell walls thin;

medial and distal cells 12–20 × 4–6 µm, prorulae low.

erect-appressed to spreading-recurved, ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate, or linear;

base sometimes abruptly enlarged and clasping;

margins not or weakly bordered, toothed distally or throughout, teeth single or paired;

apex acute, acuminate, or rarely obtuse;

costa strong;

laminal cells rounded quadrate, oblong, rectangular, or linear, prorulose or mammillose at one or both ends, rarely centrally papillose or smooth, walls usually firm, usually enlarged, lax, smooth, and hyaline toward base, not or weakly differentiated at basal angles (or with distinct alar regions).

Seta

0.1–1.5 cm, straight.

terminal, often appearing lateral by innovations, single or rarely clustered, usually elongate, smooth.

Sexual condition

synoicous.

dioicous, autoicous, or synoicous;

perigonia gemmiform or discoid, paraphyses filiform or clavate;

perichaetial leaves similar to stem leaves, often longer, areolation more lax.

Capsule

erect, subglobose to ovoid, symmetric, 1.4–2 mm;

operculum conic convex;

peristome single;

exostome teeth 250–300 µm, striolate papillose proximally, smooth distally;

endostome absent.

inclined, horizontal, erect, or rarely pendent, subglobose or ovoid, usually asymmetric, furrowed or rarely smooth or irregularly wrinkled when dry, mouth usually oblique;

annulus usually absent;

operculum conic, convex, umbonate, or rarely rostrate, beak short, blunt;

peristome double, single, rudimentary, or absent, inserted well below mouth;

exostome teeth 16, yellow-brown to reddish brown, lanceolate, smooth or papillose, usually unbordered, usually with prominent trabeculae, often with intermediate thickenings distally;

endostome absent or usually well developed, sometimes adhering in fragments to exostome or shorter and keeled, basal membrane usually high, segments gaping, split along median line, cilia 1–3 or sometimes absent, usually short, never appendiculate.

Calyptra

cucullate, smooth, naked.

Spores

22–26 µm.

spheric to reniform, papillose.

Bartramia stricta

Bartramiaceae

Phenology Capsules mature Jan–Aug.
Habitat Soil, rock
Elevation low to high elevations (10-2300 m) (low to high elevations (0-7500 ft))
Distribution
from FNA
CA; NM; TX; BC; Europe; sw Asia (Syria, Turkey); n Africa; c Africa; Australia
[WildflowerSearch map]
Nearly worldwide; montane tropical regions
Discussion

Bartramia stricta is a widespread Old World species occurring infrequently in the southwestern portion of the flora area, with an isolated occurrence in western Canada. The strict, appressed leaves without shoulders and with relatively uniform areolation from base to acumen aid in recognition. When fertile, the erect, symmetric capsules and single but well-developed peristome are diagnostic. Confusion between this species and Anacolia laevisphaera may occur, especially with sterile material. In the latter, the apices of the distal leaves are often divergent when dry, spreading recurved when moist, with the inner basal laminal cells more differentiated than those of the basal angles compared with basal areolation in B. stricta.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 9 or 10, species ca. 420 (5 genera, 22 species in the flora).

Distinctive family characters of Bartramiaceae include the more or less globose, typically furrowed capsules and the narrow leaves with prorulose cells. The prorulae are usually eccentric over the lumen. Infrequently, most of the laminal cells are smooth (a condition often associated with submergence in boggy habitats) or, as in Plagiopus, the leaves develop a striated cuticle that can appear papillose in transverse section.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Leaves in 5 distinct rows; distal laminal cells mammillose or ± smooth; rhizoids smooth; operculum rostrate; exostome teeth apically connate.
Conostomum
1. Leaves usually not in 5 rows (seriate-spiraled in Philonotis seriata); distal laminal cells striate, prorulose, papillose, or smooth; rhizoids papillose; operculum convex, conic, or umbonate; exostome teeth, when present, apically free
→ 2
2. Leaves in 3 rows; distal laminal cells faintly striate.
Plagiopus
2. Leaves not in distinct rows or rarely in 5 rows; distal laminal cells prorulose, papillose, or rarely smooth
→ 3
3. Stems with hyalodermis absent, epidermis prorulose; capsules irregularly wrinkled; w North America.
Anacolia
3. Stems with hyalodermis present, sometimes indistinct, epidermis not prorulose; capsules usually furrowed (irregularly wrinkled in Philonotis cernua); e North America, Greenland
→ 4
4. Leaves 2- or 3-stratose; fertile plants lacking subfloral whorl of branches.
Bartramia
4. Leaves 1-stratose; fertile plants often with subfloral whorl of branches.
Philonotis
Source FNA vol. 28, p. 103. FNA vol. 28, p. 97. Author: Dana G. Griffin III.
Parent taxa Bartramiaceae > Bartramia
Sibling taxa
B. brevifolia, B. halleriana, B. ithyphylla, B. pomiformis, B. potosica, B. subulata
Subordinate taxa
Anacolia, Bartramia, Conostomum, Philonotis, Plagiopus
Name authority Bridel: Muscol. Recent. 2(3): 132, plate 1, fig. 5. (1803) Schwagrichen
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