Octoblepharum albidum 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

    Leucobryaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Octoblepharum albidum Hedw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants whitish or grayish, frequently tinged with yellow, brown, or red, in rather compact tufts 0.5-3 cm high. Leaves 2.5-5.5 mm long, wide-spreading to recurved, plane, ligulate from a pale, oblong or obovate base, rounded-obtuse to broadly acute, apiculate, ± crenate-serrulate at the apex and narrowly bordered by linear cells in the upper 1/2 or less, usually crenate or irregularly serrate at the shoulders, often radiculose at the tip or occasionally bearing clusters of green, subcylindric gemmae; costa filling all of the limb, narrowed below the shoulders; cells of the base lax and thin-walled, oblong-hexagonal. Setae 3-4.5 mm long, yellow (or brownish with age); capsules 1-1.25 mm long, oblong to oblong-ovoid, brown, usually ± striate when old; annulus of 1-2 rows of small, brown, thick-walled cells; operculum 0.7-0.9 mm long; peristome teeth 8, short, lanceolate, entire, yellow, smooth. Spores 16-23 µm, finely papillose.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 137

    O. albidum Hedw., Sp. Muse 50. 1801.

    This common species is easily recognized by its widespreading, strap-shaped leaves with rounded-obtuse and abruptly apiculate leaves serrulate at the apex. The leaves are not fragile, and the peristome teeth are eight in number.

    Octoblepharum cylindricum Schimp. ex Mont., known from Belize (and elsewhere in the American tropics), has setae 10-20 mm long, oblong-cylindric capsules, and acute to gradually apiculate leaves entire at the apex.

  • Distribution

    On bases of trees and rotten logs, common at low elevations; Campeche, Chiapas, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatan.—Pantropical, extending northward to Florida and Louisiana.