Aloina

  • Authority

    Sharp, Aaron J., et al. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. Part One: Sphagnales to Bryales. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 69 (1): 1-452.

  • Family

    Pottiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Aloina

  • Description

    Genus Description - Plants small, scattered or loosely gregarious. Stems up to 6 mm high, simple or forked, with colorless to brownish at base, in section showing inner cells small and thin-walled but the central strand absent or poorly differentiated. Leaves few, crowded, lingulate or short-lingulate, rounded-obtuse (and sometimes piliferous), deeply concave; laminae partially bistratose and broadly inflexed above a sheathing base; margins plane and entire to crenulate above; costa broad, flat, ending at or near the apex (nearly absent in A. bifrons), in section with dorsal stereids few or in as many as 7 layers, covered ventrally by branched green filaments (also found on the lamina adjacent to the costa) 3-9 cells high and ending in a conic cell with an apical thickening; upper and midleaf cells generally broader than long, thick-walled, especially at the corners; basal cells quadrate to short-rectangular, thin-walled. Dioicous. Perigonial leaves short and broad, with laminae reduced, weakly costate. Perichaetial leaves clasping or scarcely differentiated, with laminae not inflexed, ecostate. Setae about 6-24 mm long, yellowish to bright-red, variously twisted above and below; capsules erect and symmetric, about 1-3 mm long, cylindric to ovoid-cylindric, red to nearly black; annulus consisting of 1-3 rows of large or small cells, persistent or revoluble; operculum 0.5-1.7 mm long, conic-rostrate to long-rostrate; peristome teeth long-filiform, 600-1750 µm long, yellowish, generally twisted above a basal membrane which projects above the mouth of the capsule. Spores about 9-24 pm, spherical, finely papillose. Calyptrae cucullate, brown, smooth, naked

  • Discussion

    The name of the genus refers to the fleshy leaves which give the plants the succulent appearance of an Aloe. The deeply concave leaves have laminae abruptly infolded above a sheathing base and green filaments covering the upper surface of a broad costa (as well as a narrow bistratose area alongside the costa). A thickening at the apex of the terminal cell of costal filaments is also diagnostic.

    For further information, see Delgadillo (1973a, 1973b, 1975b).