Campylopus capitulatus E.B.Bartram

  • Authority

    Frahm, Jan-Peter. 1991. Dicranaceae: Campylopodioideae, Paraleucobryoideae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 54: 1-238. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Dicranaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Campylopus capitulatus E.B.Bartram

  • Type

    Type. Ecuador. Chaupi-Sagcha, Pululagua, on a stump, Bell 591 (holotype, FH; isotype, BM).

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants to 5 cm high, yellowish green, in loose tufts. Stems appressed foliate, abruptly ending in a comose tip consisting of long, flexuose leaves with numerous small, heteromorphic brood leaves. Leaves about 5 mm long, lanceolate, from ovate base gradually contracted to a serrate tip. Costa filling 1/2 to 2/3 of the leaf width, excurrent, in transverse section with ventral hyalocysts and dorsal groups of (sub)stereids. Brood leaves 2 mm long, narrow lanceolate, with poorly developed lamina, contracted at base, often hooked or curled. Alar cells hardly developed. Basal laminal cells hyaline, thin-walled, rectangular, 16-26 × 45-80 µm, narrower at margins. Upper laminal cells sharply differentiated from the basal ones, incrassate, 8-13 × 13-19 µm, nearly quadrate. Sporophyte not known.

  • Discussion

    Although described in 1955, this species had already been found in Peru in 1923 (Bryan 489, MO), but erroneously taken by Williams for C. gracilicaulis (C. surinamensis). Indeed, it is morphologically similar to C. surinamensis with ap-pressed foliate stems and apical comal tufted leaves, but it is distinguished from the latter by nearly quadrate (not rectangular) upper laminal cells and the habitat on rotten wood at high elevations, whereas C. surinamensis is a lowland species growing on sandy soil.

    Campylopus capitulatus is closely related to C. fragilis with respect to the presence and shape of brood leaves, the lax, hyaline basal laminal cells and the incrassate, subquadrate upper laminal cells and the structure of the costa, but is distinguished by the conspicuous appressed stem leaves and comal tufts. Thus, the species are thought to be phylogenetically related. Since C. fragilis is confined in the Andes to the alpine and subalpine belt, C. capitulatus may be interpreted as an an- dean rainforest race of C. fragilis. Although morphologically very closely related, both species were found in a mixed tuft (Frahm 144, 145) in Ecuador at 2800 m elevation, which shows that they are genetically distinct.

    Another species, occurring in SE Asia, resembles C. capitulatus: C. laxitextus Lac. It is distinguished only by long, subhyaline excurrent costae and longer, short rectangular upper laminal cells.

  • Distribution

    On rotten wood, logs and stumps, rarely epiphytic in montane rainforests, cloud forests and subalpine forests through the Andes from Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia, so far not known from Colombia, in elevations from 2000 to 3500 m.

    Venezuela South America| Táchira Venezuela South America| Mérida Venezuela South America| Ecuador South America| Napo Ecuador South America| Pichincha Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Amazonas Peru South America| Cusco Peru South America| Junín Peru South America| Bolivia South America| Cochabamba Bolivia South America|