Hypnum cupressiforme |
Hypnum pratense |
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cypress-leaf claw-moss, cypress-leaf plaitmoss, hypnum moss |
flat claw-moss, hypnum moss |
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Habit | Plants small to large, rusty green, golden green, yellow-green, or pale green. | Plants medium-sized, pale green to golden green. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | 1–8+ cm, pale to yellowish green, brown with age, creeping to erect, complanate-foliate or not, irregularly pinnate to nearly unbranched, attached shoots often regularly pinnate, branches 1–3 cm; hyalodermis absent, central strand poorly developed; pseudoparaphyllia filamentous, 1–3-seriate at base. |
0.5–1.5(–3) cm, green to yellowish, erect to creeping, strongly complanate-foliate, irregularly branched to unbranched, branches 0.1–0.3 cm; hyalodermis present, central strand present; pseudoparaphyllia foliose. |
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Leaves | strongly imbricate, not to decidedly falcate-secund, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, gradually or abruptly narrowed to apex, 1.5–2 × 0.5–0.8 mm; base not decurrent, not auriculate; margins recurved to plane proximally, serrulate (sometimes weakly) distally, occasionally nearly entire; acumen slender; costa double and short or obscure; alar region well defined, basalmost cells larger, sometimes hyaline, yellowish or brownish; basal laminal cells shorter, wider than medial cells, not pigmented, walls not pitted; medial cells (50–)60–80 × 3–4(–5) µm. |
sometimes falcate, not strongly secund, ovate, curving to insertion, tapering to apex, 0.5–1.8 × 0.3–0.5 mm; base decurrent; margins plane, entire; apex broadly acute; costa double and short or ecostate; alar region not conspicuously differentiated; basal laminal cells shorter, wider than medial cells, yellowish, walls porose; medial cells 80–100 × 4–5 µm. |
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Seta | reddish, 1–2.5(–3) cm. |
reddish, 2–4 cm. |
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Sexual condition | dioicous; inner perichaetial leaves oblong-lanceolate, margins serrulate distally, costa obscure. |
dioicous; inner perichaetial leaves oblong-lanceolate, plicate, margins slightly toothed or entire at apex, costa obscure. |
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Capsule | slightly inclined, reddish, cylindric, 1.8–2.5(–2.8) mm; annulus 1–3-seriate; operculum conic to rostrate; endostome cilia 1–2(–3). |
inclined to arcuate, pale brown, short-cylindric, 1–2 mm; annulus 2- or 3-seriate; operculum conic; endostome cilia 2–4. |
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Hypnum cupressiforme |
Hypnum pratense |
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Phenology | Capsules mature Jul–Aug. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Terrestrial, moist soil in fens, calcareous sites | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | low to high elevations (0-3000 m) [low to high elevations (0-9800 ft)] | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution | Nearly worldwide; except Antarctica
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AK; CO; IL; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MT; NC; NH; NY; OH; OR; PA; SD; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; YT; Greenland; Europe; Asia |
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Discussion | Varieties 9 (4 in the flora). Hypnum cupressiforme is an extremely polymorphic species, reflected in the more than 60 varieties that have been described. The species has a wide ecological amplitude as well as a nearly cosmopolitan distribution and is found in all climatic regions except the Antarctic. Taxonomic features reliable in most other species of Hypnum are plastic in H. cupressiforme. Within a single clone, it is possible to sort out several named varieties. Variety lacunosum Bridel was noted by H. Ando (1989) to be weakly differentiated in North America, and he tentatively cited specimens from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and South Dakota. Ando noted that var. lacunosum typically is robust, thick-complanate to julaceous, with leaves almost straight to weakly falcate and abruptly narrowed to a short acumen, but the North American material is not robust and is therefore problematic. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Hypnum pratense is a temperate to boreal circumpolar species, scattered largely north of the 35 parallel of latitude, but not frequent in the Arctic; plants produce sporophytes infrequently in spring and summer. Plants of H. pratense are strongly glossy with few or no rhizoids, the apical laminal cells are considerably shorter than the medial cells, and the capsules are furrowed when mature and dry. For additional comments, see discussion under 14. H. lindbergii. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 28, p. 537. | FNA vol. 28, p. 545. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Stereodon cupressiformis | Breidleria pratensis, H. pseudopratense, Stereodon pratensis | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Hedwig: Sp. Musc. Frond., 291. (1801) | Koch ex Spruce: London J. Bot. 4: 177. (1845) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |