Tortella

• 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

  Pottiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Tortella

• Description

  Species Description - Plants loosely or densely caespitose. Stem simple or forked; central strand sometimes present. Leaves usually crisped and contorted when dry, lingulate to long-lanceolate from an oblong, erect base, obtuse to acute, often apiculate; margins plane, entire; costa shortly excurrent, with 2 well-developed stereid bands; upper cells rounded-hexagonal, green, densely papillose; basal cells lax and hyaline, abruptly differentiated in a V extending up the margins above the shoulders as a short or ± elongate border. Perichaetial leaves not much differentiated. Setae terminal, elongate; capsules erect or somewhat curved, cylindric; annulus present or lacking; operculum high-conic, with cells in counterclockwise-spiral rows; peristome teeth inserted near the mouth, orange-red, consisting of 32 linear, branched-spiculose divisions twisted counterclockwise. Calyptrae cucullate.