Acritodon nephophilus H.Rob.
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Authority
Sharp, Aaron J., et al. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. Part Two: Orthotrichales to Polytrichales. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 69 (2)
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Family
Sematophyllaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Distribution and Ecology - On trunks and branches of trees at 3000-3200 m alt.; Oaxaca (Sierra de Juarez; Llano de las Flores; Cerro Pelon, above Valle Nacional; San Pedro Yolox).—Endemic.
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Discussion
Fig. 730
A. nephophilus Robins., Bryologist 67: 452. 1964.
The plants, when dry, have the aspect of a shiny Pylaisiella or a Sematophyllum. The leaves are homomallous when dry and the branches are curved accordingly. They are distinctive because of abmpt acumina, revolute margins, and squarish, yellow-brown, concave alar groups. The calyptra tends to persist just below the capsule. The capsules are quite unlike those of a Sematophyllum: the operculum is bluntly rostrate; the exothecial cells are not thickened at the comers; the peristome teeth are finely papillose throughout; and the endostome segments are spht into two broad, somewhat irregular divisions. The generic name makes reference to those divisions, as irregular teeth; the specific epithet refers to a cloud forest habitat.
The double costa is long for the Sematophyllaceae, and the peristome is not the hypnoid type that one expects (in varying degrees of modification) in that family. A relationship elsewhere should be explored.
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Distribution
On trunks and branches of trees at 3000-3200 m alt.; Oaxaca (Sierra de Juarez; Llano de las Flores; Cerro Pelon, above Valle Nacional; San Pedro Yolox).—Endemic.
Mexico North America|