Eurhynchiastrum pulchellum |
Brachytheciaceae |
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Habit | Plants glossy. | Plants small to large, in loose to dense tufts or mats, light or deep green, yellowish, brownish, stramineous, whitish, or rarely blackish, usually glossy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stem(s) | leaves broadest at 1/10 leaf length or below, 0.5–1.3(–2.6) × 0.4–0.9(–1.8) mm; base rounded to insertion; margins plane or recurved proximally; alar cells 12–20 × 10–15 µm, region subquadrate, small, ± distinct, often surrounded by subquadrate cells in ± extensive, indistinctly delimited group; laminal cells 30–75(–100) × 4–6 µm, smooth; basal juxtacostal cells 7–10 µm wide. |
leaves appressed, erect, spreading, patent, or falcate-secund, loosely to closely imbricate, rarely well spaced, linear-lanceolate, broadly ovate, or broadly triangular, strongly longitudinally plicate to not plicate; base slightly narrowed or rounded to insertion, short to long and narrowly to broadly decurrent; margins plane to recurved, serrate, serrulate, or entire; apex gradually tapered or acuminate, occasionally piliferous from rounded-cucullate base; costa to (20–)40–100% leaf length, terminal spine present or absent, abaxial surface occasionally toothed; alar cells usually differentiated, larger or smaller than basal laminal cells, region more pellucid or more opaque, usually specific to particular species; laminal cells usually elongate to linear, 6–15:1, occasionally 20:1 or 1.5–5:1, smooth or strongly prorate in distal ends, walls thin to moderately thick, rarely as thick as lumen; basal juxtacostal cells usually shorter, wider than more distal cells, walls usually more incrassate, region more opaque or more pellucid, sometimes undifferentiated. |
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Branch leaves | 0.2–1.3(–1.9) × 0.2–0.5(–1) mm; costa to 60–90% leaf length; laminal cells just before apex short, nearly isodiametric or irregular in shape. |
usually smaller, relatively narrower; base more short-decurrent; margins usually more strongly serrate; apex more gradually acute or acuminate; costa usually relatively longer, more often projecting in relatively stronger spine; laminal cells shorter, same width as in stem leaves or rarely narrower; basal cells often not patterned as those of stem leaves, areolation more even across base, cells wider. |
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Seta | 1–1.8 cm. |
red-brown, usually dark red-brown with age, rarely cherry red or orangish, usually long (5–20 times capsule urn length) (short in Zelometeorium), twisted, rough or smooth. |
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Sexual condition | autoicous, dioicous, phyllodioicous, or rarely synoicous; perichaetial leaves in species with horizontal capsules reflexed, base sheathing, apex gradually or abruptly acuminate, costa barely discernible or weak and short, to 1/2 base length, rarely long and vanishing in acumen; perichaetial leaves in species with erect capsules usually straight. |
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Capsule | 1.5 mm. |
usually horizontal, sometimes erect, color similar to seta; annulus not separating or separating by fragments; operculum conic or rostrate; peristome xerocastique or hygrocastique, perfect (exostome teeth cross striolate proximally; endostome conspicuous, not adherent to exostome (except in Homalotheciella), basal membrane 1/2–1/3 endostome length, segments broad, cilia 2 or 3), sometimes modified (for example, exostome teeth papillose to base, endostome basal membrane less than 1/3 endostome height, cilia reduced or absent, etc.) in association with erect capsules and usually hygrocastique peristome. |
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Calyptra | cucullate (mitrate in Zelometeorium), naked, rarely hairy. |
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Spores | slightly papillose. |
9–28 µm. |
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Specialized | asexual reproduction absent. |
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Eurhynchiastrum pulchellum |
Brachytheciaceae |
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Distribution | North America; Mexico; Central America; Eurasia; n Africa; e Africa; Atlantic Islands; Pacific Islands
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Nearly worldwide Brachytheciaceae are found throughout Arctic; boreal; and temperate zones; also on high mountains in subtropical and tropical zones; and are more diverse in xeric and Mediterranean climates |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Eurhynchiastrum pulchellum is easy to recognize by its blunt branch leaves. The common phenotype for plants on soil and tree trunk bases in forests is light green plants with rigid erect leaves. In xeric and arctic environments, leaves are strongly appressed forming julaceous shoots, and plants are often brownish and quite fragile. They have been segregated as var. praecox (temperate areas, branch leaves 0.5–0.8 mm, alar cells as in typical variety) and var. diversifolium (arctic-alpine, branch leaves 0.5–0.6 mm, alar cells very numerous) but these grade to typical phenotypes and thus do not merit taxonomic recognition. Some collections described as Eurhynchium strigosum var. scabrisetum Grout have roughened setae, although the mammillae are very low, appearing as a shallowly wavy outline mostly at mid seta. In various parts of North America, plants of more robust stature occur. They were described at the level of variety (var. barnesii, var. robusta), of even species (Eurhynchium fallax, E. substrigosum, E. tayloriae). Plants with broadly triangular branch leaves up to 1 mm have been reported from California and Colorado as Eurhynchium striatum (D. H. Norris and J. R. Shevock 2004; W. A. Weber and R. C. Wittmann 2007). Among the taxa of large Eurhynchium pulchellum, H. A. Crum et al. (1965) accepted only var. barnesii, as the largest one in all dimensions, and this treatment is followed here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 43, species ca. 250 (19 genera, 72 species in the flora). Brachytheciaceae are found throughout Arctic, boreal, and temperate zones, also on high mountains in subtropical and tropical zones, and are more diverse in xeric and Mediterranean climates. In most cases, species of Brachytheciaceae are easily recognizable. Distinctive characters include glossy plants, plicate leaves in many species, rough setae in about half of the species (otherwise a rough seta is rare in the North American moss flora), leaves with single costa, relatively short capsules, and the red base of exostome teeth in many species. For poorly distinguishable taxa, the structure of pseudoparaphyllia is diagnostic. In Brachytheciaceae, the first branch leaf is pointed downward and the second and third diverge 120° from it; in most other pleurocarps the first branch leaf is lateral. M. S. Ignatov and S. Huttunen (2002) divided the family into four subfamilies, all represented in North America: Eurhynchioideae Milde include genera with smooth setae and, with the exception of Pseudoscleropodium, rostrate opercula: Bryoandersonia, Palamocladium, and Rhynchostegium. Helicodontioideae M. Fleischer unite terrestrial Cirriphyllum and Oxyrrhynchium, aquatic Donrichardsia, and epiphytic Clasmatodon, Homalotheciella, and Zelometeorium. All species of this subfamily in North America have rostrate opercula and, with the exception of Clasmatodon, rough setae; epiphytic genera have strongly modified peristomes. Homalothecioideae Ignatov & Huttunen represent a lineage grading toward a xeric environment and include Brachytheciastrum and Homalothecium as the core of the subfamily, but also Eurhynchiastrum; characters of the seta and operculum vary within this group. Brachythecioideae Huttunen & Ignatov are mainly terrestrial mosses in mesic sites, variable in seta characters, but mostly having a conic operculum in the core genera, Brachythecium, Sciuro-hypnum, and Scleropodium, although the basal genera, Bryhnia, Kindbergia, and Myuroclada, have a rostrate operculum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 28, p. 437. | FNA vol. 28, p. 404. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Brachytheciaceae > Eurhynchiastrum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Hypnum pulchellum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Hedwig) Ignatov & Huttunen: Arctoa 11: 262. (2003) | Schimper | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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