Dicranum polysetum |
Dicranaceae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
dicranum moss, wavy broom moss, wavy-leaf heron's-bill moss, wavy-leaf moss |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habit | Plants in loose tufts, light green, glossy. | Plants small to large, often in dense tufts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 4–15 cm, densely tomentose with whitish or reddish rhizoids. |
erect, simple or dichotomously to irregularly branched, usually with central strand, often densely radiculose, tips occasionally deciduous. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | erect to spreading, ± flexuose, little changed when dry, strongly undulate, (5.5–)7–9.5(–10.5) × 1–2 mm, lanceolate, concave proximally, keeled above, acute; margins strongly toothed in the distal half; laminae 1-stratose; costa ending before apex, occupying ca. 1/16–1/8 of leaf base, strong, with two toothed ridges distally on abaxial surface, with one row of guide cells, two stereid bands, adaxial epidermal layer of cells not differentiated, abaxial layer with a few cells enlarged; cell walls between lamina cells not bulging; leaf cells smooth; alar cells 2-stratose, well-differentiated, not extending to costa; proximal laminal cells elongate, pitted, (45–)78–129(–156) × (5–)9–10(–14) µm; distal laminal cells shorter, sinuose, pitted, (42–)64–68(–115) × (4–)9–10(–13)µm. Sexual condition pseudomonoicous; dwarf male plants on stem rhizoids of female plants; interior perichaetial leaves abruptly long-acuminate, convolute-sheathing. |
in several rows around the stem, erect or secund, often falcate-secund, sometimes crispate, short- to long-lanceolate, whole leaves or their tips sometimes deciduous; costa single, usually strong, percurrent to excurrent, sometimes ending in a short to long hyaline awn, smooth, ridged or lamellose on abaxial surface, rhizoids occasionally on adaxial or abaxial surface near leaf base; laminal cells smooth or sometimes distal cells mammillose or papillose on one or both sides, papillae rarely forked, or toothed by projecting cell ends, pitted or nonpitted; proximal cells elongate, often differentiated in alar region, sometimes undifferentiated. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seta | 1.5–4 cm, usually aggregate, 3–6 per perichaetium, brown or reddish brown. |
solitary or several per perichaetium, elongate, usually straight, sometimes flexuose or cygneous. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sexual condition | autoicous, dioicous or pseudomonoicous. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Capsule | 2–3.5 mm, arcuate, inclined to horizontal, furrowed when dry, yellowish brown or reddish brown; operculum 2–4 mm. |
exserted, erect, inclined, or sometimes curved, cylindrical or ovoid, smooth, ridged, furrowed or irregularly wrinkled, sometimes strumose; stomata present or absent, superficial; annulus present or absent, often compound, deciduous or persistent; operculum conic or obliquely rostrate from a conic base; peristome single, usually of 16 lanceolate teeth, deeply divided into 2 or rarely 3 divisions, usually vertically striolate or pitted-striolate proximally, papillose distally. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Calyptra | cucullate, smooth, naked, sometimes fringed at base, usually covering most of capsule, fugacious. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spores | 12–24 µm. |
mostly spheric, smooth to papillose. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Specialized | asexual reproduction absent or occasionally present as brood leaves, microphyllous branches, borne in axils of distal leaves or as rhizoidal tubers. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dicranum polysetum |
Dicranaceae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Phenology | Capsules mature spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Commonly on humus, soil over acidic or calcareous rock, and decaying wood in deciduous or more often coniferous forests, occasionally in bogs, fens, and swamps | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 10-2100 m (0-6900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; CO; CT; IA; ID; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; SD; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; PE; QC; SK; YT; Europe; Asia
|
Worldwide |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discussion | W. L. Peterson (1979) recorded Dicranum polysetum from Nunavut. It is one of the largest, most conspicuous, and most easily recognized species in the genus in North America. The species is immediately recognized by the large stems, 4–15 cm, with a dense mat of whitish or reddish tomentum, giving the stems a thickened appearance, by the shiny, strongly undulate, wide-spreading leaves with margins strongly toothed in the distal half and by the clustered sporophytes (3–6 per perichaetium). Microscopically, the species is readily distinguished by the elongate, abundantly pitted cells throughout the leaf and by the toothed ridges on the abaxial surface of the costa in the distal part of the leaf. Dicranum polysetum is one of the few species in North America that has no apparent intergradations with any other species of the genus. It is common in southeastern Canada, northeastern United States, and the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where it extends south to Wyoming and Colorado, occurring in both states in a small number of localities. It is rare west of the Rockies, where it is known from only a few localities in northwestern Montana, southern Idaho and northeastern Washington and Oregon. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 50–52, species ca. 900 (17 genera, 90 species in the flora). Distinctive characters of this large acrocarpous family include the erect, often tomentose stems; mostly narrow, lanceolate, occasionally falcate or falcate-secund leaves, with a single, narrow to broad costa, with or without rhizoids at the base, sometimes ending in a hyaline, occasionally toothed apex, costa in cross section with or without stereid bands, leaf cells usually smooth, sometimes mammillose, or rarely with a single papilla on one or both sides, papillae rarely forked, asexual propagation by specialized deciduous branches, deciduous leaves or leaf apices, rarely rhizoidal tubers; sporophytes usually solitary or rarely clustered, setae mostly elongate, straight or rarely flexuose or cygneous, capsule cylindric to ovoid, erect to horizontal, smooth or ribbed, sometimes strumose, operculum usually obliquely rostrate, peristome single, with 16 teeth often divided 1/2 way to the base, usually striolate or pitted-striolate proximally, papillose distally. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 401. | FNA vol. 27, p. 358. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Dicranaceae > Dicranum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | D. rugosum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Swartz: Monthly Rev., ser. 2, 34: 538. (1801) | Schimper | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |