Distichium capillaceum |
Ditrichaceae |
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distichium moss, erect-fruit iris-moss |
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Habit | Plants minute or rather small to medium-sized, gregarious or loosely to densely tufted. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | to ca. 6 cm, occasionally longer. |
erect, simple or forked, with a central strand. |
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Leaves | mostly lanceolate, acuminate or subulate, straight or somewhat curved, rarely sheathing at base; in numerous rows (2 rows in Distichium); costa single, well developed, subpercurrent to excurrent, in section with 1 row of guide cells and 2 stereid bands, adaxial band sometimes much reduced; lamina cells smooth (± roughened in subula in Distichium); basal cells elongate, narrower towards the margins, those of basal angles not differentiated or forming a marginal border; distal cells isodiametric or short-rectangular to elongate, walls firm. |
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Seta | to 2 cm, straight to somewhat flexuose, smooth, red or reddish brown, occasionally yellowish brown. |
short to ± elongate, yellow to orange, reddish brown, brown, or reddish purple; capsules immersed to emergent and subglobose to long-exserted and ± cylindric, erect to inclined or pendulous, often ± curved or asymmetric; cleistocarpous, gymnostomous, or peristomate; annulus, when present, usually of 2–3 rows of larger cells, deciduous; peristome, when present, single, of 16 teeth, variously split into two terete filaments or perforate to near the base; operculum conic to short-rostrate. |
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Sexual condition | paroicous. |
dioicous, autoicous, paroicous, or synoicous; perigonia axillary or on short branches adjacent to perichaetia, or terminal on separate plants; perichaetial leaves not markedly differentiated or with a longer, broader sheathing base and shorter subulate apex. |
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Capsule | brown, 1–2 mm, erect, cylindric to ovoid-cylindric, straight to weakly arcuate, becoming ± wrinkled when dry; operculum to 0.5 mm; peristome teeth evenly spaced, lanceolate, divided nearly to the base into 2(–3) filaments, smooth to papillose or sometimes ± striolate. |
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Calyptra | cucullate, rarely mitrate. |
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Spores | densely and finely papillose, 15-25 µm. |
spheric to ovoid or ± reniform, finely to coarsely papillose, verrucose, or somewhat vermicular or reticulate. |
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Specialized | asexual reproduction occasional, as multicellular filamentous gemmae borne in axils or along stems, or as specialised tubers or filamentous propagules on rhizoids. |
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Distichium capillaceum |
Ditrichaceae |
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Phenology | Capsules mature summer–fall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Soil, rock, crevices, ledges, banks, occasionally bark | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; IA; ID; IN; ME; MI; MT; ND; NH; NM; NV; NY; OR; SD; UT; VT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; YT; Mexico; Central America; South America; Africa; Arctic; Australia; Pacific Islands; Greenland; se Asia; e Asia; c Asia; n Asia; Eurasia; Antarctic
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Cosmopolitan; greatest occurrence in temperate regions |
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Discussion | Plants of Distichium capillaceum form dense, rather silky tufts and the slender, spreading, distichous leaves with shiny, whitish, oblong, sheathing bases are characteristic. This is a taller species than D. inclinatum, with plants less crowded, capsules erect-symmetrical and cylindric, and spores smaller. In more northerly or alpine regions with more severe climatic conditions, the plants are often shorter, more compact, and have shorter leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 25, species ca. 140 (9 genera, 25 species in the flora). Species of Ditrichaceae usually colonize soil, rarely wood, and some species have a distinct preference for calcareous substrates. The family is poorly defined and separated from Dicranaceae primarily on peristome characteristics, with the teeth divided into terete rather than flat filaments, and the general absence of vertical pit-striations. In some species, however, oblique ornamentation is present, at least in the distal portion of the teeth. W. R. Buck and B. Goffinet (2000) included 25 genera, with one hybrid genus, Pleuriditrichum, in the family. The inclusion of at least some of the genera seems somewhat anomalous. Within the flora, Ceratodon, Distichium, Ditrichum, Saelania, and Trichodon are peristomate, while Cleistocarpidium, Eccremidium, Pleuridium, and Pseudephemerum are cleistocarpic. Although in this treatment it is included in Ditrichaceae, Pseudephemerum was placed in Dicranaceae by Buck and Goffinet. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 449. | FNA vol. 27, p. 443. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Ditrichaceae > Distichium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Cynontodium capillaceum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Hedwig) Bruch & Schimper: Bryol. Europ. 2: 156. (1846) | Limpricht | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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