Warnstorfia trichophylla (Warnst.) Tuom. & T.J.Kop.

Authority

Hedenäs, Lars. 2003. Amblystegiaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 89: 1--107. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Campyliaceae

Scientific Name

Warnstorfia trichophylla (Warnst.) Tuom. & T.J.Kop.

Type

Type. Sweden/Finland. Lappland, Baur s.n; Finland. H. Lindberg s.n. (syntypes, n.v.).

Synonyms

Drepanocladus rotae var. trichophyllus Warnst., Hypnum trichophyllum Sw. ex Hedw., Drepanocladus trichophyllus (Warnst.) Podp.

Description

Species Description - Plants medium-sized or large; green, brown, or (when emergent above water) red. Stem pinnately (radially) or sparsely pinnately branched; hyalodermis absent (outside the area occasionally with a few widened epidermal cells); branch apices (and often shoot apices) ± pencil-like due to long-excurrent leaf costae; pseudoparaphyllia ± quadrate to much broader than long; axillary hairs with 2-7-celled upper part, this early brown. Stem leaves straight or rarely falcate (gradually curved), ovate to triangular, narrowing gradually to apex, not plicate, concave; apex usually very long-acuminate or sometimes long-acuminate; margin denticulate; costa single and strong, short- or long-excurrent (excurrent part to 35% of leaf length); median laminal cells 54.5-189.0(-231.0) × 4.0-9.5(-10.5) µm, thin-walled or incrassate, eporose or porose; alar cells inflated and hyaline; alar group distinctly delimited, transverse-triangular, reaching the costa. Branch leaves with costa like that of stem leaves. Dioicous. Inner perichaetial leaves narrowing ± abruptly to long-acuminate apex. Exostome outside reticulate in lower part. [Sporophytes not known from neotropical material.]

Discussion

Warnstorfia trichophylla was first noted from its single Colombian locality by Ochyra (1996). One of the two specimens is mixed with W. exannulata (Cleef 8346), and the other was originally identified as Ditrichum submersum Cardot & Herzog (A. M. Cleef 8345). Warnstorfia trichophylla is usually easily recognized by its pencil-like shoots, its excurrent leaf costa, and its long early brown axillary hairs. The only S American material of W. trichophylla has relatively sparsely branched shoots. This species sometimes resembles W. exannulata, but the latter lacks the distinctly pencil-like branch and shoot apices, has a nonexcurrent leaf costa, and has shorter axillary hairs that are hyaline when young. Warnstorfia trichophylla could be confused with Drepanocladus longifolius and D. perplicatus, which also have excurrent costae. However, the latter two species do not have pencil-like shoot and branch apices; the plants are distichously rather than radially branched; their axillary hairs have a 1-2-celled and hyaline upper part; and they never get red. In addition, D. perplicatus differs from W. trichophylla in having entire leaf margins and partially bistratose leaf lamina. It should be noted that many specimens of D. longifolius have finely denticulate leaf margins, and that this character cannot always be used to separate this species from W. trichophylla.

Distribution and Ecology: Colombia (3845 m a.s.l.). Widespread in northern Eurasia; also occurring in Alaska and W Canada. All material under the name Warnstorfia trichophylla that I have seen from other parts of N America, as well as from Iceland and Svalbard, belongs to other species. The material on which the recent reports of W. trichophylla from C Europe (Duell 1985) and Greenland (Mogensen 1995) are based belongs to Warnstorfia exannulata. At its single Colombian locality, W trichophylla grows submerged in a small lake along with W. exannulata. In other parts of its distribution area, W. trichophylla grows mainly submerged in small waters of different kinds.

Distribution

Colombia South America| Cundinamarca Colombia South America|