Dicranum flagellare Hedw.

  • 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

    Dicranaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Dicranum flagellare Hedw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants up to 4 cm high, dull, yellowish-green, radiculose nearly to the apex, often with clusters of 1-6 deciduous, terete branchlets 2-3 mm long in axils of upper leaves, the branchlets bearing small, ovate, obtuse, ecostate leaves closely appressed to the axis. Leaves 2-4 x 0.3-0.6 mm, falcate-secund to erect-spreading, somewhat crisped when dry, tubulose above, lanceolate, acute, concave below, unistratose; margins entire or serrulate to serrate near the apex; costa percurrent to shortly excurrent, sometimes dorsally papillose or toothed near the apex, lacking dorsal ridges, in section showing 1 row of guide cells and 2 stereid bands, the dorsal epidermis with a few differentiated cells; upper cells quadrate, short-rectangular or irregularly angled, non-pitted; basal cells linear to rectangular, sometimes pitted. Dioicous (male plants about the size of the female). Setae solitary, 1-2 cm long, yellow, brown or reddish; capsules 2-3 mm long, straight, erect, striate when dry; annulus of 1-3 rows of cells, deciduous; operculum 1-1.5 mm long. Spores 14—19 µm. (No sporophytes seen on Mexican plants.)

  • Discussion

    Fig. 124

    D. flagellare Hedw., Sp. Muse 130. 1801.

    Orthodicranum flagellare (Hedw.) Loeske, Stud. Morph. Syst. Laubm. 85. 1910.

    Holomitrium falcatum Bartr., Bryologist 49: 111. 1946.

    The plants are recognized by terete, axillary branchlets serving in asexual reproduction.

  • Distribution

    On rotten wood or soil over rock at moderate to high altitudes, up to about 2400 m alt.; Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan, Morelos, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tamaulipas, Veracruz.—Mexico; Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama; West Indies; United States and southern Canada; Europe and Asia.

    Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Costa Rica South America| Panama Central America| West Indies| United States of America North America| Canada North America| Europe| Asia|