Brachymenium brevicarpum Ochi & Streimann
-
Authority
Buck, William R. 1987. Bryostephane Steereana: A Collection of Bryological Papers Presented to William Campbell Steere On The Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 45: 1-749.
-
Family
Bryaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Latin Diagnosis - Autoicum videtur. B. nepalensi Hook, simillimum, sed folia siccitate fere spiraliter torta, latins limbata; capsula brevior pyriformis, sat erecta; processus endostomii breviuscule evoluti.
Species Description - Plants autoicous(?), 0.5-0.8 cm high, gregarious or loosely tufted, yellowish-green and ± lustrous above, brown with radicles below. Stems simple or branched by 2-3 subfloral innovations. Leaves ± twisted or folded inward and flexuous, and then appressed to the stem when dry, erectspreading when moist, obovate to obovate-oblong, acuminate, revolute or reflexed except in apex where the margin very finely serrulate or crenulate; costa strong, red or red-brown in the basal part, brownish-yellow and then yellowish toward the apex, very longly excurrent with a straight, or ± flexuous, smooth point; cells hexagonal or rhomboid-hexagonal, with very thin, slightly pitted walls, ca. 48-55 x 15-19 µm in the median lamina, smaller toward the apex, short-rectangular in the basal part where often red, narrower and more rhomboid toward the margin; distinctly bordered with 3-4 rows of very narrow, thicker-walled, much more elongate, yellowish or sometimes slightly brownish cells. Setae slender, brown, shining, paler above, erect, but often ± flexuous, to 2.6 cm long; capsules erect, beautifully pyriform, to 2.5 x 1.3 mm, with a short, abruptly narrowed, slender neck gradually tapering into the seta; exothecial cells mostly hexagonal or pentagonal and ± elongate, rather thin-walled, smaller toward the capsule mouth, and then darker-pigmented and flattened in several rows just below the mouth; no opercula seen; peristome slightly inserted below the capsule mouth; exostome teeth sublinear, 0.29-0.32 mm long, distantly separated from each other at base, dirty-yellow in the basal part, more brownish in the median portion, yellowish-hyaline at slightly narrowed, very finely and closely papillose apex; endostome dull yellow, scarcely papillose, basal membrane very high, segments incomplete, short, and irregular in length, cilia absent. Spores around 40 µm, very closely papillose.
-
Discussion
Type: PAPUA N E W GUINEA. Morobe Prov.: Aiuwa-Bakia Track, 3 km W of Aseki, 7°22'S, 146°09' E, 1500 m alt., on shaded garden fence mostly of Draceana on gentle easterly slope, 22 Jan 1981, H. Streimann & E . Tamba 12306 (holotype cbg, isotype in H. O.).
Brachymenium brevicarpum is very similar to B. nepalense Hook., especially in gametophyte characters, but the leaves are scarcely twisted or contorted to the stem when dry, and are more widely bordered; capsules are much shorter, erect, beautifully pyriform with an abruptly narrowed, short neck which gradually tapers into the seta, with segments of endostome present, although they are incomplete, and short and irregular in length. It is also similar to B. leptophyllum (C. Müll) Jaeg. or B. himalayanum Ochi in capsule shape or pattern ofthe endostome development (Ochi, 1956, 1972), but the capsule is shorter with a much more swollen theca and an abruptly narrowed, short neck and much larger spores are distinct in the present moss.