Anacolia laevisphaera (Taylor) Flowers

  • 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

    Anacolia laevisphaera (Taylor) Flowers

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants 1-5 cm high, in loose or dense, green, yellow-green, or reddish mats, simple or variously branched. Leaves imbricate when dry (or the upper leaves often spreading), spreading to recurved when moist, 2-6.5 mm long, mostly ovate-Ianceolate; margins coarsely double-serrate and revolute in the upper 1/2 or more; costa excurrent to long-excurrent, rough at back; upper cells 2-stratose toward the costa and up to 3- or rarely 4-stratose at the margins, short-rectangular to linear, up to 45 µm long, 3-7 µm wide, papillose at both ends; basal cells subquadrate to short-rectangular toward the margins, up to 20 µm long, 10-12 µm wide, considerably longer near the costa and up to 100 µm long, 6-9 µm wide. Setae 2-8 mm long, straight; capsules 2-3 mm long; peristome none. Spores 23-28 µm.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 434

    A. laevisphaera (Tayl.) Flow, in Grout, Moss Fl. N. Amer. 2(3): 155. 1935.

    Glyphocarpa laevisphaera Tayl., London J. Bot. 5: 56. 1846.

    Bartramia subsessilis Tayl., London J. Bot. 6: 334. 1847.

    B. laevisphaera (Tayl.) C. Mull., Syn. Muse Frond. 1: 506. 1849.

    Glyphocarpa taylori Hampe, Flora 45: 453. 1862.

    G. subsessilis (Tayl.) Jaeg., Ber. Thatigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1873-74:62. 1875.

    Anacolia abyssinica Schimp., Syn. Muse Eur. ed. 2, 2: 514. 1876.

    A. subsessilis (Tayl.) Broth, in E. & P., Nat. Pfl. 1(3): 634. 1904.

    A. subsessilis var. nigroviridis Card., Rev. Bryol. 37: 4. 1910.

    A. subsessilis var. brevifolia Broth, in Skottsb., Nat. Hist. Juan Fernandez 2: 425. 1924.

    A. subsessilis var. densiretisTher., Rev. Bryol. Lichenol. 5: 104. 1932.

    Features of note include the thickened upper lamina, prominent end papillae on upper cells, and long juxtacostal cells at the leaf base. Griffin and Acuna (1983) found that A. laevisphaera has spores with a complex ornamentation of smooth, clavate and verrucate elements arising from lirate bases, while those of Flowersia campylopus (commonly known as an Anacolia) are bullate, with each bulla granulate at the surface.

  • Distribution

    On soil or rocks at middle to upper elevations; Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Distrito Federal, Durango, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Veracruz, Zacatecas.—Mexico; Cordilleran from Alaska to South America; reported from the Dominican Republic; Ethiopia and Reunion; India.

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