Tetraplodon mnioides |
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entireleaf nitrogen moss, slender cruet-moss |
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Habit | Plants 1–4(–8) cm, light green or yellow-green. |
Leaves | oblong-ovate, concave, 1–2 × 3–5 mm; margins entire; apex abruptly subulate; costa vanishing in subula; distal laminal cells rectangular to oblong-hexagonal, 20 × 35 µm. |
Seta | stramineous, usually dark red with age, 1–5 cm. |
Sexual condition | autoicous. |
Capsule | not cleistocarpous, red, dark or black with age, long-ovate; hypophysis somewhat wider than urn distally; stomata over whole of hypophysis; operculum bluntly conic. |
Calyptra | conic-mitrate. |
Spores | 9–12 µm, smooth or slightly papillose. |
Tetraplodon mnioides |
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Phenology | Capsules mature summer. |
Habitat | Dung of carnivores, old bones, owl pellets, dry alpine, boreal, arctic habitats |
Elevation | low to high elevations |
Distribution |
AK; ME; MI; MN; NH; NJ; NY; OR; VT; WA; WV; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; SK; YT; Greenland; n Europe; Asia
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Discussion | Tetraplodon mnioides is much more common than other species of the genus and is readily distinguished; the plants differ from those of T. angustatus by their larger tufts and longer sporophytes, which are dark red, becoming black with age. Sterile plants of T. mnioides differ from those of T. angustatus by their oblong-ovate, abruptly subulate leaves with entire margins, whereas those of T. angustatus are oblong-lanceolate, gradually subulate, and serrate. The distal laminal cell walls of T. mnioides are rather thin. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 28, p. 23. |
Parent taxa | Splachnaceae > Tetraplodon |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Splachnum mnioides |
Name authority | (Hedwig) Bruch & Schimper: Bryol. Europ. 3: 215. (1844) |
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