Flora of North America species comparison

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Hookeria acutifolia

sharpleaf hookeria moss
Leaves

with acute apex;

laminal cells (except rhizoid initials at apex) ± homogeneous;

marginal cells narrower than medial cells.
Capsule

not or little contracted below mouth when dry.

Hookeria acutifolia
Phenology Capsules mature late fall–spring.
Habitat Steep to vertical banks, crevices and recesses in cold streams, gullies, ravines, mouths of caves, ledges, under overhanging cliffs, deep shade of evergreen and mixed hardwood forests, by waterfalls, gneiss, shale, conglomerates, on sandstone, in coves, low cloud forests, with Bryoxiphium, Trichomanes, Vittaria spp.
Elevation moderate to high elevations (500-2500 m) (moderate to high elevations (1600-8200 ft))
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; GA; IL; IN; KY; NC; OH; PA; SC; TN; VA; WA; WV; HI; BC; s Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; e Asia; Africa
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Hookeria acutifolia is a species of warm-temperate and tropical distribution, rare and scattered in eastern North America, and disjunct to British Columbia and Washington state. The leaves may be more lanceolate (broadest below the middle) than those of H. lucens. The oceanic habitat appears conducive to fruiting in this species. A. J. Grout (1934b) indicated that spores were rarely produced in winter.

In Hookeria acutifolia, when the leaf apex lacks rhizoids, the apex is sharply acute and tipped with a small sharp apical cell; when rhizoids are present, the apical cells are digested and the apex becomes erose and bluntly rounded-acute, but never smoothly rounded-obtuse as in H. lucens. Hookeria acutifolia was reported as autoicous in Mexico (F. D. Bowers 1994), eastern North America (H. A. Crum and L. E. Anderson 1981), England (A. J. E. Smith 1978), and China (Lin B. J. and B. C. Tan 2002). A. J. Grout (1934b) described the sexual condition of the species as dioicous, and E. Lawton (1971) described specimens from the Pacific Northwest as having perichaetia and gemmiform perigonia on separate plants. Fruiting plants seen from British Columbia were autoicous; however, many separate plants in the same collection had only male buds.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 28, p. 249.
Parent taxa Hookeriaceae > Hookeria
Sibling taxa
H. lucens
Synonyms H. sullivantii, Pterygophyllum acutifolium
Name authority Hooker & Greville: Edinburgh J. Sci. 2: 225, plate 5 [upper left]. (1825)
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).



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