Didymodon asperifolius
Didymodon murrayae
didymodon moss, rough-leaf beard-moss, rough-leaf green-beard moss
Murray's beard moss
leaves appressed-incurved when dry, usually strongly recurved and keeled when moist, monomorphic, triangular to lanceolate, adaxially grooved along costa, 1.2–2.5 mm, base ovate, margins strongly and broadly recurved in proximal 1/2 or up to near apex, entire, apex narrowly to broadly acute, not fragile, commonly ending in a conical cell;
costa percurrent or ending 1–4 cells before the apex, tapering, widened pad of cells absent, adaxial costal cells quadrate to short-rectangular, 4–6 cells wide at mid leaf, guide cells in 1 layer;
basal laminal cells differentiated medially or across leaf, rectangular, walls usually thickened;
distal laminal cells 13–15 µm wide, 1:1, papillae usually absent, rarely simple, weak and domelike, 1 per lumen, lumens rounded or angular, walls thickened, often irregular or very weakly trigonous, weakly to strongly convex on both sides, 1-stratose.
leaves weakly appressed when dry, weakly spreading and not keeled when moist, monomorphic, oblong-lanceolate, grooved adaxially along the costa near leaf apex, 0.6–0.9 mm, base oblong in shape, margins broadly recurved in proximal 3/4 of leaf to near apex, entire but often notched laterally, apex subulate to irregularly dentate-clavate, caducous (deciduous early), commonly ending in a conical cell;
costa percurrent to excurrent, not strongly spurred, not much widened or tapering, without a pad of cells, adaxial costal cells rectangular, ca. 4 cells wide at mid leaf, guide cells in 1 layer;
basal laminal cells weakly differentiated medially, walls thin to evenly thickened, short-rectangular, not perforated;
distal laminal cells 8–10 µm wide, 1:1, smooth or weakly conic-mammillose at apex, lumens quadrate, walls thin, weakly convex on both sides of lamina, distal leaf margins 2-stratose in deciduous part of apex.
0.4–0.6 cm.
unknown.
ca. 1 mm;
peristome teeth 16, short-lanceolate to linear, irregularly cleft or perforate to near base, straight, to 50–300 µm. Spores 13–15 µm. Distal laminal KOH reaction red.
asexual reproduction specialized structures absent.
asexual reproduction by thickened, caducous leaf apices, often toothed.
unknown.
laminal KOH reaction red.
Didymodon asperifolius
Didymodon murrayae
Didymodon asperifolius can sometimes be immediately recognized by a red-yellow translucency in leaves of dry plants, like oiled paper. The adaxial surface of the costa may have either quadrate or short-rectangular cells. The distal laminal cells are also rather large for the genus. The KOH reaction, as well as the natural color of the lamina are sometimes light orange, but usually quite red. Some plants may appear green but the laminal cell walls are red under high magnification.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Didymodon murrayae was originally reported (R. H. Zander 1978f) as D. sinuosus (Mitten) Delogne, a European taxon that differs in its rupestral habitat, much larger leaves, quadrate adaxial costal cells and merely fragile leaf apex. Trichostomum tenuirostre may occasionally have similar sequentially constricted, fragile leaves, but the leaf cells are papillose and the plane margins are crenulate by projecting walls. Didymodon murrayae is similar to two other Asian species, D. gaochenii and D. hedysariformis (T. N. Otnyukova 2002), but the former differs in the rounded apex of the propagulum (no teeth), and the latter in its propagulum contorted in appearance before dispersal.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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