Bryum argenteum Hedw.

  • 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

    Bryaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Bryum argenteum Hedw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Small, scarcely lustrous, silvery plants, gregarious to densely tufted. Stems very slender, simple or subflorally branched. Bulbous, axillary gemmae occasional. Leaves appressed to the stem when dry, somewhat more spreading when moist, ovate with a hyaline apical part, ± acuminate and apiculate; margins nearly entire, plane or slightly reflexed; costa strong, ending well below the apex to long-excurrent; cells hexagonal, rectangular below. Dioicous. Sporophytes not common. Setae very slender, up to 1.1 cm long; capsules nodding to pendulous, short-pyriform, short-necked; operculum relatively large, hemispheric, apiculate; segments moderately perforate, the cilia well developed, nodulose. Spores ca. 8-9 µm, nearly smooth.

  • Discussion

    Figs. 344, 345e

    B. argenteum Hedw., Sp. Muse. 181. 1801.

    Mnium lanatum P.-Beauv., Prodr. Aetheog. 75.1805.

    Bryum argenteum var. lanatum (P.-Beauv.) Hampe, Linnaea 13: 44. 1839.

    B. plagiopodium Schimp. exC. Miill., Syn. Muse. Frond. 2:572.1851.

    B. corrugatum Hampe, Bot. Zeitung 27: 868. 1869.

    B. minutulum Schimp. ex Besch., Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg 16: 197.1872.

    B. argenteum var. corrugatum (Hampe) Besch., Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg 16:197.1872.

    B. argenteum var. brachycarpum Card., Rev. Bryol. 36: 112. 1909.

    B. tricolor Card., Rev. Bryol. 38: 34.1911.

    B. cinereumThir., Smithsonian Misc. Collect. 78(2): 15. 1926.

    B. arseneiThir., Smithsonian Misc. Collect. 78(2): 16. 1926.

    B. bursiforme Bartr., Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 4(9): 353.1928.

    Bryum argenteum is easily recognized by its small size and silvery, julaceous appearance. The upper cells are hyaline. The leaves may be slenderly acuminate or merely apiculate. The capsule is short-pyriform and nodding to pendulous. The erect capsules of B. insolitum and B. petelotii provide separation from this species of similar gametophytic form.

    Some authors separate as var. lanatum (P. Beauv.) Hampe a form having leaves hyahne in a much larger apical area and costa stronger and long-excurrent. There are, however, gradations with the typical variety.

  • Distribution

    A weed, on soil, rocks, cement walls, roof tiles, bark of trees, etc., in open to semi-shady sites; almost throughout Mexico.—Cosmopolitan.