Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Hamatocaulis

hamatocaulis moss
Habit Plants medium-sized to very large, green, brownish, variegated green and red, entirely red, or brownish to blackish red.
Stem(s)

leaves ovate to broadly ovate, abruptly narrowed to apex, suddenly curved distally, concave or strongly so, usually distinctly plicate;

base not or hardly decurrent;

margins finely, irregularly denticulate near apex, otherwise entire;

apex acute or acuminate;

costa single, ending beyond mid leaf;

alar cells not differentiated;

medial laminal cell walls thin or slightly incrassate, porose or not.
Sexual condition

dioicous;

inner perichaetial leaves plicate;

vaginula with paraphyses present.
Capsule

with annulus separating;

exostome external surface reticulate basally, margins slightly dentate distally.
Spores

10–25 µm.

Hamatocaulis
Distribution
from USDA
North America; West Indies; n South America; Eurasia; possibly Africa
Discussion

Species 2 (2 in the flora).

Hamatocaulis is characterized by the lack of a central strand or hyalodermis, thin and relatively poorly developed cortex, undifferentiated alar cells, and plicate leaves from an erect base suddenly curved. The last feature is found also in Scorpidium. Hamatocaulis is one of the genera of Calliergonaceae in which red pigment is frequently present in parts of the plants. When only parts of the leaves are red, the pigment is mainly found in a sub-basal transverse band. Hamatocaulis is found in mineral-rich to intermediately mineral-rich, but usually not calcium-rich habitats.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Stem leaves ovate; bases ± erect, slightly constricted at insertion; stem leaves 0.6-1.1 mm wide.
H. vernicosus
1. Stem leaves broadly ovate; bases patent, distinctly constricted at insertion; stem leaves 0.8- 2 mm wide.
H. lapponicus
Source FNA vol. 28, p. 386.
Parent taxa Calliergonaceae
Subordinate taxa
H. lapponicus, H. vernicosus
Name authority Hedenas: Lindbergia 15: 27, figs. 3D, E, 12, 14. (1989)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers