Plagiomnium cuspidatum |
Mniaceae |
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baby tooth moss, tooth plagiomnium moss, woods leafy moss, woodsy mnium |
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Habit | Plants small to large, in loose to dense tufts or mats. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | green, yellow-green, brown, reddish brown, or black, rarely yellowish brown, erect, arching, inclined, or plagiotropic, usually simple, sometimes branched distally, rarely dendroid; rhizoids brown or reddish brown, of two types, macronemata larger and usually strongly branched, mainly proximal, often matted, mainly restricted to leaf or branch bases distally, rarely along leaf bases, and micronemata, smaller, less branched and paler, present or absent on stems. |
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Leaves | dark green or yellow-green, contorted when dry, flat when moist, obovate, ± diamond-shaped or occasionally elliptic, 3–5 mm; base broadly long-decurrent; margins toothed from about mid leaf to apex, teeth sharp, of 1 (or 2) cells; apex acute or acuminate, long-cuspidate, cusp sometimes toothed; costa percurrent or excurrent; medial laminal cells short-elongate or ± isodiametric, 20–30(–40) µm, slightly smaller near margins, occasionally in longitudinal rows, rarely in diagonal rows, strongly collenchymatous, walls not pitted; marginal cells linear, in 2–4(–5) rows. |
green, yellowish green, or reddish, rarely bluish green, usually small and distant proximally, larger and more crowded distally, sometimes forming terminal rosettes, sometimes incurved upwards, usually crisped or contorted, sometimes undulate when dry, spreading, erect-spreading, reflexed, or arcuate-recurved, flat or sometimes keeled, rarely undulate when moist, orbicular, spatulate, lingulate, ligulate, elliptic, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or obovate; base decurrent or not; margins usually plane, sometimes recurved, green, brown, red, or reddish brown, 1- or 2-stratose, rarely multistratose, rarely with stereid band, entire or toothed distally or to leaf base, teeth single or paired, sharp or blunt, of 1(–4) cells; apex acute, obtuse, acuminate, or rounded, sometimes emarginate or retuse, often apiculate, sometimes cuspidate, cusp often toothed; costa single, excurrent, percurrent, subpercurrent, or ending well before apex, distal abaxial surface smooth or toothed, adaxial surface rarely toothed, teeth of 1(–3) cells, 1 or 2 stereid bands present, rarely absent, (abaxial stereid band U-shaped in Cinclidium); alar cells undifferentiated; medial laminal cells usually short-elongate, sometimes ± isodiametric, hexagonal, sometimes pentagonal, rarely four-sided, usually 2:1 or less (3+:1 in Pseudobryum), sometimes in longitudinal or diagonal rows, smooth (mammillose in Trachycystis), collenchymatous or not, walls pitted or not; marginal cells usually differentiated, linear, rhomboidal, or rectangular, in (1–)2–3(–6) rows. |
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Seta | single, yellow, brown, or sometimes reddish, 2–3 cm. |
single or sometimes double or several, yellow, brown, red, yellowish green, yellowish brown, reddish brown, or orange-yellow, sometimes blackish with age, elongate, straight or flexuose, smooth. |
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Sexual condition | synoicous. |
synoicous or dioicous. |
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Capsule | pendent, ovoid or cylindric, 2–3.5 mm, neck not distinct; operculum conic-apiculate. |
horizontal to pendent, yellow, brown, yellowish brown, or yellowish green, elliptic, ovate, subglobose, oblong, or cylindric; stomata cryptoporous (phaneroporous in Cyrtomnium); annulus deciduous; operculum conic or hemispheric, apiculate, mammillate, or rostrate; peristome double, complete; exostome teeth 16, usually lanceolate-acuminate, external surface lamellose; endostome usually equal in size to exostome, basal membrane high, segments often perforate with gaps along keels, cilia nodulose (endostome domed, fused at apex, perforated when mature, with keeled columns distally, alternating with shorter exostome teeth in Cinclidium). |
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Calyptra | cucullate, usually naked. |
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Spores | 18–31 µm. |
spheric, smooth or papillose, brown. |
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Erect | stems 1–2(–3.5) cm, not dendroid; sterile stems to 7 cm. |
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Plagiomnium cuspidatum |
Mniaceae |
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Phenology | Capsules mature late spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Soil, logs, rock, stumps or tree bases in wet meadows/carrs, forested rich peatlands, wet forests, fire-dependent forests/woodlands, mesic hardwood forests, cliff/talus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | low to moderate elevations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; AL; AR; CA; CO; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK; Asia; Greenland; Europe; Mexico (México); Africa
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Nearly worldwide; circumtemperate to circumboreal |
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Discussion | Plagiomnium cuspidatum, P. drummondii, and P. floridanum are the only North American species of the genus that consistently have well-developed, sharp teeth restricted to the distal portions of the leaf margins. Plagiomnium ellipticum and P. rostratum often have leaves that are toothed only distally, but the teeth are small and mostly blunt, and the leaves are never obovate. Plagiomnium cuspidatum has larger leaves and larger, less collenchymatous laminal cells than P. drummondii and P. floridanum. The thinner cell walls and larger cells of P. drummondii give it a distinctly more translucent aspect than P. cuspidatum and P. floridanum. In addition to the morphological characters in the key, Plagiomnium cuspidatum is separated from the closely allied P. floridanum by sexual condition, ploidy level, and ecology (R. Wyatt and I. J. Odrzykoski 2012). Plagiomnium cuspidatum is synoicous and diploid, with a chromosome count of n = 12, whereas P. floridanum is dioicous and haploid, with a chromosome count of n = 6. Although Plagiomnium cuspidatum exhibits a relatively broad ecological amplitude, P. floridanum shows a preference for soils associated with limestone. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 12, species 92 (8 genera, 37 species in the flora). Mniaceae is a diverse family generally characterized by relatively large plants with broad leaves, and with short-elongate or more or less isodiametric laminal cells most often hexagonal and angular. Leaf margins are usually differentiated by a border of elongate cells and range from smooth to strongly toothed. The family is also characterized by a wide degree of morphological variation as a response to environmental conditions, age, or sexuality. Fertile stems are sometimes strikingly different from sterile stems, and female or synoicous plants are sometimes different from male plants. This makes the identification of weakly developed specimens difficult. Many species in the family are fairly common in temperate and boreal habitats in the Northern Hemisphere and are frequently collected in ecologically based surveys. The following keys stress vegetative traits and are best employed using well-developed, mature plants. Leaf laminal and marginal cell characters were derived by examining cells near mid leaf. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 28, p. 231. | FNA vol. 28, p. 215. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Mniaceae > Plagiomnium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Mnium cuspidatum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Hedwig) T. J. Koponen: Ann. Bot. Fenn. 5: 146. (1968) | Schwagrichen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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