Campylopus introflexus
Campylopus flexuosus
heath star 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.
5–7 mm, erect-patent when wet, flexuose when dry, the distal leaves sometimes curved and secund, lanceolate, ending in a straight concolorous tip, which is serrate in the distal part;
alar cells hyaline or reddish;
basal laminal cells thick-walled, rectangular, ca. 4–5:1, narrower toward the margins;
distal laminal cells quadrate to oblique or short rhombic;
costa filling 1/2–2/3 of leaf width, in transverse section showing abaxial groups of stereids and adaxial small substereidal hyalocysts which are smaller than the median deuters.
7–12 mm, yellowish brown to brownish in age, often several sporophytes from the same plant, curved or sinuose.
brown, 1.5 mm, slightly asymmetric and curved when empty.
ciliate at base.
12–14 µm.
asexual reproduction occasionally by deciduous stem tips.
asexual reproduction by microphyllous branches in the axils of the distal leaves.
not known in North America.
Campylopus introflexus
Campylopus flexuosus
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.)
Campylopus flexuosus has been only found in a few localities in the coastal lowlands of British Columbia and a single locality in the Appalachian Mountains. The occurrences in East Asia and British Columbia may be interpreted as relictual from the Tertiary, from which area C. flexuosus was—in contrast to Europe—not able to spread after the Pleistocene. The only record from the Appalachian Mountains on Flat Rock, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina, is difficult to explain because many similar habitats exist near that vicinity in which the species has not been found. Before 1980, all specimens from North America, except for three labelled as C. flexuosus, belonged in fact to C. tallulensis or rarely to C. surinamensis. Campylopus flexuosus, however, differs from C. tallulensis by thick-walled, chlorophyllose basal laminal cells and small adaxial hyalocysts and in appearence by dark green color. Campylopus tallulensis has hyaline thin-walled basal laminal cells, large adaxial hyalocysts (even visible in surface view of the costa) and commonly a golden yellowish color. Campylopus surinamensis has longer distal laminal cells and the costa ends in a strongly dentate often subhyaline awn.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
CalFlora
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
