Isopterygium tenerum |
Hypnaceae |
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isopterygium moss |
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Habit | Plants small, in thin to dense mats, whitish to yellowish. | Plants small to large, lax to dense, in tufts or mats, dark green, yellow-green, golden green, or orange, sometimes reddish brown or nearly black, often lustrous. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stem(s) | to 2(–5) cm, 0.5–1.5(–3) mm wide. |
and branch leaves similar or less commonly differentiated, straight to homomallous, often falcate-secund, usually ovate-lanceolate, often asymmetric, sometimes linear, lanceolate, or triangular, occasionally plicate; base sometimes decurrent; margins often plane, occasionally recurved proximally or throughout, entire or toothed; apex obtuse to acuminate; costa double, short, to obscure or ecostate; alar cells usually differentiated, often quadrate to short-rectangular, sometimes enlarged and inflated, pigmented or similar in color to other cells, excavate or plane; medial and distal laminal cells linear, hexagonal, or elongate-sinuate, smooth, sometimes prorulose at distal ends on abaxial surface. |
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Leaves | erect-spreading, not or slightly wrinkled when dry, ovate to lanceolate, 0.7–1.8 × 0.2–0.6 mm; margins plane, serrulate to entire proximally, serrate to serrulate distally, rarely entire throughout; alar cells short-rectangular, quadrate, or transversely elongate, 12–38 × 10–20 µm, region small; medial laminal cells often flexuose, linear-fusiform, 52–151 × 5–8 µm. |
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Seta | yellow to reddish brown, 0.5–1.5 cm. |
elongate, smooth (occasionally scabrous near capsule in Ctenidium). |
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Sexual condition | autoicous, dioicous, or phyllodioicous. |
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Capsule | cernuous, rarely erect, light brown to orange-brown, 0.5–2 mm; operculum conic-apiculate to obliquely short-rostrate. |
inclined, horizontal, or sometimes erect, cylindric or ovoid, usually smooth, often constricted below mouth when dry and empty; operculum conic or rostrate; peristome usually double; exostome teeth 16, external surface cross striate basally, papillose distally, sometimes bordered, internal surface often trabeculate; endostome usually free, sometimes fused to exostome, basal membrane high or rarely low, segments 16, cilia 1–3, nodose, rarely rudimentary or absent. |
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Calyptra | cucullate, smooth (weakly prorulose distally in Ctenidium), naked or rarely hairy. |
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Spores | 9–14 µm. |
spheric to ovoid, usually finely papillose, rarely smooth. |
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Specialized | asexual reproduction sometimes present as filaments on stems, multicellular, green or brown, simple or branched, often more than 0.5 mm, cells papillose. |
asexual reproduction sometimes by leafy propagula or filamentous gemmae clustered in leaf axils. |
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Isopterygium tenerum |
Hypnaceae |
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Phenology | Spores 9-14 µm, mature spring–summer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Dry wooded regions, swamps, wet roadside ditches, base of trees, rotten logs, stumps, sandy soil, sedimentary rock | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | low to moderate elevations (0-400 m) (low to moderate elevations (0-1300 ft)) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; DC; DE; FL; GA; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; SC; TN; TX; VA; NS; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; s Europe (Italy)
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Nearly worldwide; most diverse in subtropics and tropics |
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Discussion | Isopterygium tenerum is common in Florida and the Gulf Coast, becoming infrequent northward, occurring in scattered localities to southern New York and disjunct to southern Nova Scotia. The species is extremely variable, and several varieties have been described from North American plants. These varieties, based on leaf shape and length, are believed to be environmental forms and are therefore included in the synonymy. A biometric analysis by P. L. Redfearn (1956) on the stem leaf variation reached a similar conclusion. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 60, species ca. 600 (19 genera, 62 species in the flora). Hypnaceae are taxonomically problematic; the family once held a high proportion of pleurocarpous species, but as genera are monographed, they are often placed in other families. The distinctive hypnoid peristome has been used as a significant feature, but this is not entirely reliable. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 28, p. 553. | FNA vol. 28, p. 515. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Hypnaceae > Isopterygium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Hypnum tenerum, H. albulum, H. chapmanii, H. fulvum, H. micans, I. drummondii, I. fulvum, I. groutii, I. micans, I. micans var. latifolium, I. micans var. minus, Isothecium tenerum, Plagiothecium fulvum, P. groutii, P. micans, P. micans var. fulvum, Rhaphidostegium ludovicianum, Rhynchostegium micans | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Swartz) Mitten: J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 499. (1869) | Schimper | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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