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Murray's beard moss

Habit Plants usually blackish green. Plants green to red-brown.
Stem(s)

leaves spreading-incurved and twisted to incurved-appressed when dry, spreading to spreading-recurved and not keeled when moist, monomorphic, short-lanceolate or sometimes short-ovate to long-elliptic, broadly concave adaxially across leaf, usually 1–2.5 mm, base scarcely differentiated in shape to ovate, margins usually recurved at mid leaf, entire, apex broadly acute or occasionally narrowly so, not fragile;

costa percurrent or ending a few cells below the apex, broader at mid leaf, occasionally weakly spurred, with a low adaxial pad of cells, adaxial costal cells quadrate, 4–6 cells wide at mid leaf, guide cells in 1–2 layers;

basal laminal cells differentiated medially or across leaf, quadrate to short-rectangular, walls very thin and not perforated;

distal laminal cells 7–12 wide, 1:1 or occasionally transversely elongate below, papillae usually distinct, low or simple to 2-fid, occasionally absent, lumens oval to rounded-quadrate, walls thin to evenly thickened, convex on both sides of lamina, 2-stratose in one or more rows along margins.

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.

Seta

0.7–1 cm.

Sexual condition

unknown.

Capsule

1–1.9 mm;

peristome teeth 32, linear, weakly twisted, to 600 µm, occasionally rudimentary.

Spores

11–15 µm.

Specialized

asexual reproduction by multicellular tubers on proximal rhizoids.

asexual reproduction by thickened, caducous leaf apices, often toothed.

Distal

laminal KOH reaction variously negative or yellow- or orange- or red-brown.

laminal KOH reaction red.

Sporophytes

unknown.

Didymodon australasiae

Didymodon murrayae

Phenology Capsules mature winter–spring.
Habitat Soil, gypsum, acid rock, ledges, sandstone, silt Willow limbs and dead tree bark
Elevation moderate to high elevations (300-2000 m) (moderate to high elevations (1000-6600 ft)) low to moderate elevations
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; OR; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; Europe; n Africa; s Africa; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia
from FNA
AK; BC; Asia
Discussion

In North American Didymodon, hydroids are found in the costae of D. anserinocapitatus, D. australasiae, D. nevadensis, D. norrisii, D. umbrosus, D. revolutus, and D. vinealis, and in these species the adaxial stereid band is usually absent in well developed specimens. Intergrades exist between D. australasiae and D. umbrosus, but the extreme forms are common and quite distinctive.

(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.)

Source FNA vol. 27, p. 547. FNA vol. 27, p. 556.
Parent taxa Pottiaceae > subfam. Barbuloideae > Didymodon Pottiaceae > subfam. Barbuloideae > Didymodon
Sibling taxa
D. anserinocapitatus, D. asperifolius, D. bistratosus, D. brachyphyllus, D. eckeliae, D. fallax, D. ferrugineus, D. giganteus, D. johansenii, D. leskeoides, D. maschalogena, D. maximus, D. murrayae, D. nevadensis, D. nicholsonii, D. nigrescens, D. norrisii, D. perobtusus, D. revolutus, D. rigidulus, D. subandreaeoides, D. tectorum, D. tophaceus, D. umbrosus, D. vinealis
D. anserinocapitatus, D. asperifolius, D. australasiae, D. bistratosus, D. brachyphyllus, D. eckeliae, D. fallax, D. ferrugineus, D. giganteus, D. johansenii, D. leskeoides, D. maschalogena, D. maximus, D. nevadensis, D. nicholsonii, D. nigrescens, D. norrisii, D. perobtusus, D. revolutus, D. rigidulus, D. subandreaeoides, D. tectorum, D. tophaceus, D. umbrosus, D. vinealis
Synonyms Tortula australasiae, D. diaphanobasis, Husnotiella torquescens, Trichostomopsis australasiae, Trichostomopsis brevifolia, Trichostomopsis diaphanobasis, Trichostomopsis fayae
Name authority (Hooker & Greville) R. H. Zander: Phytologia 41: 21. (1978) Otnyukova: Arctoa 11: 345, fig. 6. 2002 (as murrayeae),
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