Monographs Details:
Authority:

Buck, William R. 2003. Guide to the plants of central french Guiana. Part 3. Mosses. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-167.
Family:

Pilotrichaceae
Scientific Name:

Callicostella
Description:

Genus Description - Plants small to medium-sized, in pale green to golden, usually thin, extensive, flat mats; stems creeping, scarcely to freely but irregularly branched, complanate-foliate, in cross-section with a sclerodermis. Leaves often contorted when dry, densely to laxly foliate, lateral and dorsal leaves differentiated from ventral leaves, leaves mostly oblong to broadly oblong to oblong-ovate, gradually acuminate or more often broadly rounded to truncate and apiculate, ± asymmetric; margins serrulate to coarsely serrate above, rarely subentire to crenulate, plane, not or obscurely bordered; costa double, often ending near leaf apex with apices connivent, often toothed, especially at apex; cells short, mostly 1-2.1, unipapillose, weakly prorulose or smooth, thin- to thick-walled, porose or not, usually somewhat longer toward the insertion. Asexual propagula rare, when present, in leaf axils, uniseriate, brownish, papillose. Autoicous, synoicous, or less often dioicous. Setae elongate, short to very long, smooth throughout to roughened above, reddish, flexuose; capsules mostly inclined to pendent, rarely erect, ovoid to cylindric, usually with a well defined neck; exostome teeth reddish, on the front surface with a pale median furrow with a zig-zag line down it, cross- striolate below, sometimes with overlying papillae, coarsely papillose above; endostome with a medium-high basal membrane, segments papillose and/or spiculose, keeled, perforate or not, cilia none. Calyptrae naked or with a few hairs, often roughened above. Callicostella is characterized by lack of a differentiated hyalodermis; mostly oblong, unbordered leaves with broadly rounded apices that are often abruptly acute to acuminate and apiculate; mostly strongly serrate leaf margins; ± isodiametric upper leaf cells that are unipapillose or smooth; and furrowed exostome teeth.