Bryum argenteum |
Bryaceae |
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silver bryum, silver-moss, silvergreen bryum moss, silvery thread moss |
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Habit | Plants gregarious or in dense mats, white-green to silver-green. | Plants acrocarpous, small to large, as scattered individuals or open to dense turfs or cushions, green, silver, white, golden, or red, often more than one color. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 0.2–1 cm, strongly rounded julaceous or sometimes gemmiform. |
sometimes julaceous, unbranched to sparsely branched by subfloral innovations, stolons absent (present in Rhodobryum); rhizoids few to many, color various, smooth to papillose, micronemata and/or macronemata often present. |
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Leaves | erect when moist, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, somewhat concave, 0.3–1(–1.2) mm; base green; margins rarely recurved proximally or plane distally; apex broadly rounded to acute, not cucullate, hyaline in distal 1/4–1/2 of leaf or rarely nearly entirely green; costa not reaching apex, apiculus present, sometimes short or nearly absent, hyaline, irregularly incurved when dry; proximal laminal cells quadrate or short-rectangular, 12–18 µm wide, 1–2:1; distal cells short- or elongate-hexagonal, (30–)40–80 × 10–15 µm, (1–)3–5:1, walls thin or somewhat thickened, not distinctly incrassate. |
imbricate to variously contorted or twisted when dry, erect to erect-spreading when moist, broadly lanceolate, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, obovate, or spathulate; base straight or curved at insertion, decurrent or not; margins plane, recurved, or revolute, 1- or 2-stratose, rarely multistratose, limbidium present or absent; apex broadly rounded to acute or acuminate; costa percurrent, subpercurrent, or short- to long-excurrent, apiculus sometimes present when costa ends before apex, stereid band 1, well developed or occasionally greatly reduced, guide cells present or absent, adaxial supracostal cells irregularly to regularly quadrate or short- to long-rectangular proximally; alar cells usually similar to juxtacostal cells, sometimes quadrate, region small, differentiated; laminal cells relatively uniform or obscurely to distinctly heterogeneous; proximal cells usually quadrate, short- or long-rectangular, shape often distinctly different, occasionally similar to medial and distal cells; medial cells usually similar to distal cells; distal cells short to very long, hexagonal to rhomboidal, sometimes vermicular, 2–10:1, sometimes occurring in rows oblique to costa, walls thin to thick, sometimes pitted. |
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Seta | brown to red-brown, 1–2 cm. |
single, sometimes multiple, color various, elongate. |
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Sexual condition | dioicous or monoicous, sometimes polyoicous; perigonia and perichaetia terminal or lateral; perichaetial leaves same size as vegetative leaves or usually larger, sometimes forming rosette, inner leaves usually highly differentiated, often narrower, costa weaker. |
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Capsule | red to red-brown, ovate, 2–3 mm; hypophysis differentiated, somewhat thickened. |
erect, inclined, or nutant, long-exserted, ovate, spheric, cylindric, or pyriform, occasionally zygomorphic, 1–14 mm; hypophysis well differentiated or not, sometimes inflated and rugose; exothecial cells near mouth quadrate or short-rectangular, often reddish, walls thick, in 1–3+ rows, medial cells longer, short- to long-rectangular, walls straight or sinuate; annulus usually present, revoluble; operculum convex, short- to long-conic, sometimes rostrate; peristome diplolepidous-alternate, rarely reduced to 1 layer or absent; exostome white, pale yellow, or tan, sometimes reddish, teeth triangular to lanceolate, small pores sometimes present along fissural line; endostome hyaline to pale yellow, separate or sometimes adherent to exostome, basal membrane low to high, segments narrow to wide, usually broadly perforate, cilia usually appendiculate, to variously reduced in number or length or sometimes absent. |
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Calyptra | fugacious, cucullate, small, smooth. |
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Spores | 8–15 µm. |
shed singly or as tetrads, rarely germinating in capsule, smooth to papillose, pale yellow, tan, or nearly hyaline, rarely darker. |
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Specialized | asexual reproduction by leaf axil bulbils, leafy, small. |
asexual reproduction common, of 7 distinct types: spheric to ovoid rhizoidal tubers, filiform rhizoidal or leaf axil gemmae, leaf axil bulbils, stem tubers, slender leafless terminal shoots, or leaf axil deciduous brood branchlets. |
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Bryum argenteum |
Bryaceae |
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Distribution |
Nearly worldwide
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Nearly worldwide |
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Discussion | Varieties ca. 30 (3 in the flora). Bryum argenteum is perhaps the most widespread and distinctive moss in the world, although in many regions it is found primarily in urban or other heavily disturbed sites and is mostly absent from native undisturbed habitats in the tropics. There are about 15 silver-white species described, with species definitions based on a combination of one of three or four different basic gametophyte morphologies combined with subtle differences in the sporophytes. However, much of the gametophyte variability in the complex is also exhibited by B. argenteum itself, thus confusing species-level identifications. This complex is urgently in need of worldwide molecular and morphological studies. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 15, species ca. 500 (12 genera, 93 species in the flora). Bryaceae is a large family of acrocarpous mosses with a global distribution. Many species are adapted to disturbed soil and somewhat weedy. Species exhibit a remarkable array of specialized asexual reproductive structures, perhaps more than in any other bryophyte family. The sporophytes occasionally appear lateral due to rapid innovating growth. Recent genetic research has radically changed understanding of relationships in the family. Studies have shown that Pohlia and related genera, traditionally considered part of Bryaceae, are more closely related to members of Mniaceae. Further, Orthodontium is only distantly related to Bryaceae, while Leptobryum appears to be closest to Meesiaceae (C. J. Cox and T. A. Hedderson 2003). Roellobryon may also be more closely related to Mniaceae; for the flora it has been removed to its own family. Within the recircumscribed Bryaceae, results based on morphology and genetics do not always agree (N. Pedersen et al. 2003). This treatment is based primarily on the morphology of the gametophyte. Differences between phylogenetic and morphological approaches are discussed under each genus. Sizes of stems and leaves in the keys are as follows; stems: short (less than 1 cm), medium (1–3 cm), long (more than 3 cm); leaves: small (less than 1.5 mm), medium (1.5–3 mm), large (3–4 mm), robust (more than 4 mm). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 28, p. 126. | FNA vol. 28, p. 117. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Bryaceae > Bryum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Hedwig: Sp. Musc. Frond., 181. (1801) | Schwagrichen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |