Calymperes othmeri Herzog

  • Authority

    Reese, William D. 1993. Calymperaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 58: 1-102. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Calymperaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Calymperes othmeri Herzog

  • Type

    Type. Venezuela. In dem Lauf der Caroni, Othmer 443 (holotype, JE, n.v.; isotype, M).

  • Synonyms

    Syrrhopodon rivularis Herzog, Calymperes rupicola P.W.Richards

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants cespitose, sordid-green to blackish, often robust; rhizoids light-brown, scanty; stems to ca. 3 cm tall. Leaves lanceolate to acuminate from broad, often flaring bases, mostly 3.5-4.5 mm long, involute and loosely curved-contorted when dry, erect-spreading and channeled when moist; margins of upper lamina thickened but lacking stereids, entire to irregularly coarsely toothed (especially toward apex), margins of lower lamina entire or serrate; teniolae irregularly present, weak and incomplete, 1 -2(-3) cells wide at shoulders when present; cancellinae conspicuous, ending in broad angles above, distal cells plane ventrally; median leaf cells obscure, unipapillose dorsally, mammillose-bulging ventrally, mostly 6x7 µm; gemmae borne all around on tip of excurrent costa, small, reddish, mostly only 4(-5) cells long. Sporophyte unknown.

  • Discussion

    This species was placed in the synonymy of C. nicaraguense by Reese (1961), but reinstated by Reese in 1990. It differs from C. nicaraguense in bearing gemmae all around at the tip of the costa—as in C. erosum and C. tenerum—while C. nicaraguense bears gemmae only ventrally on the leaf tip. Plants of C. othmeri are often very similar to those of C. erosum but differ in the weak teniolae and the ventrally plane distal cells of the cancellinae.

  • Distribution

    Endemic to South America. Columbia; Brazil (Amazonas, Espirito Santo, Pará, Rondônia); French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname; Venezuela. Not common but locally abundant on water splashed or intermittently inundated rock along rivers in forests at elevations to ca 450 m; typically along cataracts.

    Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| Nickerie Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America| Amazonas Brazil South America| Pará Brazil South America| Rondônia Brazil South America|