Rhizomnium nudum |
Mniaceae |
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naked rhizomnium moss |
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Habit | Plants (1–)2–5 cm. | Plants small to large, in loose to dense tufts or mats. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | dark red or reddish brown when old; micronemata absent. |
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 | green to dark green, weakly contorted when dry, broadly obovate, elliptic, or often ± orbicular, (3.8–)4–6(–9) mm; margins green or sometimes pale reddish, 1–4-stratose; apex rounded, occasionally retuse, rarely short-apiculate; costa ending well before apex to 7/8 leaf length or rarely subpercurrent; medial laminal cells elongate or short-elongate, (60–)70–130(–170) µm, rarely collenchymatous, walls with broad central pits; marginal cells linear or short-linear, in (1–)2(–3) 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 | 1–2.5 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 | ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm; operculum conic-apiculate; exostome yellow, lamellae 18+. |
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 | 25–35 µm. |
spheric, smooth or papillose, brown. |
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Rhizomnium nudum |
Mniaceae |
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Phenology | Capsules mature spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Forests along streams, marshes, swamps on moist soil, humus, rock | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | low to moderate elevations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AK; ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC; Asia
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Nearly worldwide; circumtemperate to circumboreal |
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Discussion | Rhizomnium nudum is one of the most easily recognized species of the genus. The plants are characterized by the absence of micronemata, by their broad, weakly contorted, and nearly flat leaves when dry, and by having thin central laminal cell walls (broad pits), the bar bell appearance of the walls observed in leaf sections. The leaves are only weakly undulate when moist. (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. 241. | FNA vol. 28, p. 215. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Mniaceae > Rhizomnium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Mnium nudum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (R. S. Williams) T. J. Koponen: Ann. Bot. Fenn. 5: 143. (1968) | Schwagrichen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |