Plagiomnium insigne |
Mniaceae |
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badge moss, coastal leafy moss, costal leafy moss, plagiomnium moss |
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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, green, or yellow-green, crisped and contorted when dry, flat when moist, elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or occasionally ovate or oblong, (3–)5–9(–11) mm; base broadly long-decurrent; margins toothed to near base, teeth sharp, of 1 or 2 cells; apex acute, acuminate, or occasionally obtuse or rounded, cuspidate, cusp toothed; costa excurrent, percurrent, or rarely subpercurrent; medial laminal cells usually short-elongate or ± isodiametric, 40–70(–80) µm, somewhat smaller near margins to about 1/2 size, in weakly defined longitudinal rows, rarely in diagonal rows, collenchymatous, walls pitted, pits often indistinct; marginal cells linear, in 3–4(–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 | 3–6(–8), reddish proximally, yellow distally, 2–4 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 | dioicous. |
synoicous or dioicous. |
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Capsule | pendent, cylindric, 3.5–4.5 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 | 20–25 µm. |
spheric, smooth or papillose, brown. |
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Erect | stems 3–8 cm, not dendroid; sterile stems to 10 cm. |
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Plagiomnium insigne |
Mniaceae |
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Phenology | Capsules mature late spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Humus or soil in shaded habitats in forests, along trails, lawns in urban habitats | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | low to moderate elevations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; WY; BC
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Nearly worldwide; circumtemperate to circumboreal |
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Discussion | Plagiomnium insigne is typically a large species, often forming extensive mats or turfs. It is fairly common in forests and in shaded urban habitats along the west coast. Plagiomnium medium is usually smaller, lighter green, and found in generally wetter habitats than P. insigne. According to T. J. Koponen (1974), older fertile stems of P. medium are more densely covered with rhizoids than those of P. insigne that are nearly rhizoid free. (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. 233. | FNA vol. 28, p. 215. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Mniaceae > Plagiomnium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Mnium insigne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Mitten) T. J. Koponen: Ann. Bot. Fenn. 5: 146. (1968) | Schwagrichen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |