Calymperes afzelii Sw.

  • 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

    Calymperes afzelii Sw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants yellow- to dark-green, 3-10 mm tall, single or caespitose. Leaves involute when dry, contorted-spreading, 3-5 mm long, the bases conspicuous, the upper laminae ligulate to linear-lanceolate, often abruptly pinched off and forming shoulders at the apex; cancellinae ending in acute angles, 1/3 the leaf length, with apical cells smooth ventrally; costa nearly percurrent to long-excurrent, smooth or spiny papillose dorsally and ventrally; cells at midleaf obscure, minutely papillose dorsally, round to square or rectangular; teniolae 2-3 cells wide, conspicuous, intramarginal from the insertion up to 1/3 or 1/2 the leaf length, ca. 9 cells inside the margin at the shoulders; margin thickened from the apex of the cancellinae nearly to the leaf tip, coarsely double-serrate above, serrulate below. Filiform propagula produced on the ventral surface of tip of the costa. Setae dark-red, 4.5-5 mm long; capsules 2-2.5 mm long, cylindric; operculum 0.75 mm long. Spores 19-23 |im, finely papillose. Calyptrae 4 mm long, deeply plicate.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 156

    C. afzelii Sw., Jahrb. Gewachsk. 1:3. 1818.

    C. donnellii Aust., Bot. Gaz. 4: 151. 1879.

    Calymperes afzelii is fairly common and can be confused with no other American species except perhaps C. erosum, which has mammillose apical cells of the cancellinae and propagula all around the tips of costae (instead of only on the ventral surfaces). In addition, the leaf margin of C. erosum is unistratose except near the apex, whereas in C. afzelii it is thickened from near the apex of the cancelhnae to just below the leaf apex.

  • Distribution

    Mostly on bark but also on dead wood, soil, and rock, in coastal forests or similar regions, up to 700 m altitude; Chiapas, Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz; reported from Campeche.—Mexico to northern South America; West Indies; Florida; pantropical.