Trematodon longicollis Michx.

  • 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

    Bruchiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Trematodon longicollis Michx.

  • Description

    Species Description - Stems 2-8 mm high. Leaves 2-3(-5) mm long, curled when dry, oblong to oblong-ovate at the clasping base, gradually narrowed to a long-linear tip, blunt; margins ± recurved, bluntly serrulate at the tips; costa percurrent; upper cells short-rectangular. Autoicous. Setae (3-)8-35 mm long; capsules curved, sulcate when dry, the urn 1.5-2.2 mm long, the neck usually about twice as long, 2.5-5 mm long, not or ± strumose at base; annulus revoluble; operculum 1-1.7 mm long; peristome about 340-570 µm high, forked or perforate nearly to a short basal membrane, vertically barred below, papillose at the tip. Spores about 20-25 µm, papillose or minutely warty.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 63a-c

    T. longicollis Mx., Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 289. 1803.

    T. reflexusC. Mull., Syn. Muse Frond. 1: 459. 1848.

    T. squarrosus C. Mull., Bot. Zeitung 15: 381.1857.

    T. uncinatusC. Mull., Linnaea 38: 628. 1874.

    T. tenellus Schimp. ex Besch., Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. VI, 3: 178. 1876.

    T. cubensisC. Mull., Hedwigia 37: 228. 1898.

    The long seta, curved, sulcate, long-necked capsules and the well-developed peristome are especially distinctive. The goiter at the base of the neck is often present but not very conspicuous. (Operculate but not quite mature capsules m ay be smooth and non-strumose.)

    Britton (1913) treated separately from T. longicollis both T. reflexus C. Mull. (syn. T. squarrosus C. Mull, and T. uncinatus C. Mull.) and T. tenellus Schimp. ex Besch. (syn. T. cubensis C. Mull.), yet she gave only a few differences in size (including overlapping spore sizes) and even said that T. reflexus and T. tenellus are probably only smaller forms of T. longicollis. I certainly agree.

  • Distribution

    On soil at low to moderate elevations; Jalisco, Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz.— Widespread in the American tropics; eastern North America, more common southward; Italy and Crete; southern and eastern Asia; Japan and the Philippines; New Guinea; Fiji; Hawaiian Islands.

    Italy Europe| Greece Europe| Asia| Fiji Papua New Guinea Asia|