Campylopus introflexus
Campylopus atrovirens
heath star moss
campylopus moss
4–6 mm, erect-patent when wet, appressed when dry, lanceolate, straight, with entire margins;
alar cells absent or formed by thin-walled, hyaline to reddish, inflated cells;
basal laminal cells hyaline, rectangular, thin-walled, extending higher at margins and forming a V-shaped area;
distal laminal cells incrassate, shortly rectangular to oblique, chlorophyllose;
costa filling 1/2–3/4 of leaf width, excurrent in a hyaline hair tip, which is conspicuously 90° reflexed, in transverse section showing adaxial hyalocysts and abaxial stereids, shortly lamellose at back with ribs 1–2 cells high.
4–10 mm, straight in wet and dry state, narrowly lanceolate, those of deciduous stem tips often even longer and narrower, ending in a very long subula;
alar cells auriculate, hyaline or red-brown;
basal laminal cells usually shortly rectangular to subquadrate, thick-walled with pitted walls, 4–8 rows of elongate hyaline cells at basal margins of leaves;
distal laminal cells elongate oval to vermicular, walls incrassate;
costa filling 1/2–2/3 of leaf width, excurrent in a long, straight, spinose-dentate hyaline hairpoint, in transverse section showing adaxial hyalocysts as wide as the median deuters, and abaxial groups of stereids, weakly ribbed at back.
7–12 mm, yellowish brown to brownish in age, often several sporophytes from the same plant, curved or sinuose.
4 mm.
brown, 1.5 mm, slightly asymmetric and curved when empty.
1.5 mm, ovoid, brownish, operculum obliquely rostrate.
ciliate at base.
12–14 µm.
asexual reproduction occasionally by deciduous stem tips.
asexual reproduction by broken stem tips.
Campylopus introflexus
Campylopus atrovirens
Campylopus introflexus occurs in masses in sand dunes along the west coast of North America and throughout the Southern Hemisphere. The species was introduced in Great Britain in 1942, and since the beginning of the 1970s has been aggressively spreading through Europe. It now ranges from Iceland to Spain and from Ireland to Poland. The first record in North America dates from August, 1975, and was made on a gravel roof of a building of Humboldt University, Arcata, California. The species is undoubtedly introduced in North America and is spreading here as rapidly as in Europe. The name C. introflexus was used previously for C. pilifer, thus all old references for C. introflexus in North America have to be referred to that species. Also, specimens of C. surinamensis and C. oerstedianus from North America were named as C. introflexus. Campylopus introflexus is easily recognized by the reflexed hair points. Female plants have terminal perichaetial buds. Problems may rarely arise with forms from shaded habitats, in which the hairpoints are absent or so short that they are not reflexed.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Campylopus atrovirens is similar to C. sinensis, which differs by shorter, not vermicular distal laminal cells and shorter hyaline leaf tips. The latter has been found only once, in British Columbia, but it could be that collections of C. sinensis from the west coast of North America have been misidentified as C. atrovirens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaves ending in a hyaline tip. | var. atrovirens |
1. Leaves ending in a cucullate apex. | var. cucullatifolius |
BC
CalFlora
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
