Syrrhopodon parasiticus (Brid.) Besch.

  • 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

    Calymperaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Syrrhopodon parasiticus (Brid.) Besch.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants solitary, in clusters of a few, or loosely gregarious, up to 2 cm tall, dark-green, not much branched, often with a coma of broad, propaguliferous upper leaves. Leaves involute and incurved when dry, up to 5 mm long, ± dimorphous, non-propaguhferous leaves lingulate-lanceolate, the propaguliferous ones broadly lanceolate to triangular; upper laminae mostly entire, with margins often incurved-involute, undifferentiated or bordered wholly or partly by elongate cells, acute; cells smooth to uni-papillose, quadrate or vertically elongate; lower laminae usually without conspicuous shoulders, mostly broader than the upper, occasionally with intramarginal teniolalike features in the shoulder region, entire; cancellinae ending in very acute angles above. Propagula abundant, filiform, septate, up to more than 1 mm long, on the ventral surface of the costa from just above the cancellinae to near the leaf apex. Setae reddish, 3-4 mm long; capsules ovoid-cylindric, 1-2 mm long; operculum ca. 1 mm long; peristome teeth irregular, blunt. Spores 24-36 µm, irregular in shape, granular. Calyptrae 3 mm long, slightly roughened above.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 149

    S. parasiticus (Brid.) Besch., Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. VIII, 1: 298. 1895.

    BryumparasiticumBrid., Muscol. Recent. Suppl. 2(3): 54. 1803.

    Calymperopsis parasitica (Brid.) Broth, in E. & P., Nat. Pfl. (ed. 2), 10: 235. 1924.

    The costa conspicuous when dry, filiform propagula borne at midleaf, and variable leaf margins make this species recognizable. Syrrhopodon graminicola Williams (Belize, Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, Colombia, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Ecuador, and Brazil) is similar but has pluripapillose leaf cells and denticulate leaf margins bordered by elongate cells throughout.

  • Distribution

    On twigs and bark, often on leaves, in forests at low elevations (up to about 1600 m); Campeche, Jalisco, Nayarit, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Veracruz, Yucatan.—Mexico to northern South America (including the Galapagos Islands); West Indies; Florida to Texas; pantropical.