Ceratodon purpureus (Hedw.) Brid.
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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.
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Family
Ditrichaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants up to 2.5 cm high, dark-green, yellow-brown, or reddish. Leaves 1.8-2 mm long; costa percurrent to excurrent. Perichaetial leaves elongate, the inner leaves obtuse or shortly and broadly pointed. Setae 8-30 mm long, dark, purplish-red (or ± yellow to yellow-orange w h e n older); capsules inclined to horizontal, 1.25-2 mm long, ovoid-cylindric, asymmetric, strumose at the base, dark-red to purplish, deeply furrowed when dry; operculum about 0.5 mm long; peristome teeth dark-brown, conspicuously pale-bordered, usually with distinct cross-connections between the forks at base, paler and finely papillose above. Spores 11-15 µm, yellow or greenishyellow, smooth or nearly so.
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Discussion
Fig. 76
C. purpureus (Hedw.) Brid., Bryol. Univ. 1: 480. 1826.
Dicranum purpureum Hedw., Sp. Muse 136. 1801.
A weed, thriving even in urban conditions of atmospheric pollution, on sterile and disturbed soil, especially in dry, open places, sometimes also on rock, old wood, and old roofs; Baja California, Chihuahua, Durango, Mexico, Veracruz; also reported from the Distrito Federal and Zacatecas.—Very widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, largely replaced in the tropics by the following species.