Bartramia ithyphylla Brid.

  • 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

    Bartramiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Bartramia ithyphylla Brid.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants of moderate size (2-6 cm high), in loose, green to yellow-green tufts, tomentose below, simple or sparsely branched. Leaves loosely erect to flexuose or circinate, with brittle tips, 4-5 mm long, abruptly linear-lanceolate from a shiny, oblong, sheathing base; margins plane or narrowly revolute near the shoulders and serrate above them, the teeth usually paired; costa excurrent; upper cells rectangular, up to 30 µm long, 5-8 µm wide, obscure, papillose at the ends; inner basal cells laxer, up to 180 µm long, 10-15 µm wide, those at margins of shoulders hyaline and delicate. Synoicous. Setae slightly curved, 5-7 mm long; capsules cernuous, 2 mm long, subglobose, furrowed; operculum convex; exostome teeth 325-350 µm long, lanceolate, sometimes shallowly cleft at the tips, papillose below, smooth above; endostome about 2/3 as long as the exostome, the segments keeled, yellowish, smooth, from a moderately high basal membrane, the cilia poorly developed. Spores reniform, verruculose, 30-40 µm.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 430a-d

    B. ithyphylla Brid., Muscol. Recent. Suppl. 2(3): 132. 1803.

    B. pomiformis var. strigosa Wahl., Fl. Lapp. 362. 1812.

    B. strigosa (Wahl.) Hartm., Bih. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl. 1814: 102. 1814.

    The species is known by its synoicous inflorescence and shiny leaf bases which are high and sheathing, with hyaline delicate cells at the shoulder margins. It can be distinguished from B. schimperi by its slightly longer seta and better-developed endostome.

    Bartramia breviseta Lindb., seemingly restricted to northern latitudes, m a y be no more than a short-seta form of B. ithyphylla, with capsules erect and peristomes poorly developed. Its relationship to B. schimperi might be queried.

  • Distribution

    On soil and rocks at upper elevations; Jalisco, Mexico, Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz.—Mexico; Alaska to Greenland, south to California, Arizona, northern Michigan, New York, and Newfoundland; Europe and Asia.

    Asia| Europe| Canada North America| United States of America North America| Mexico North America|