Pleurochaete squarrosa (Brid.) Lindb.

  • 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

    Pleurochaete squarrosa (Brid.) Lindb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants dark-green or yellow, up to 4 cm high. Stems with a central strand and a small hyaloderm; axillary hairs hyaline, elongate. Leaves 3-5 mm long, broadly channeled; margins plane or erect, denticulate to the apex, with 1-2 marginal rows of cells not or weakly papillose; costa short-excurrent as a mucro; upper cells in longitudinal rows, 8-11 µm wide and 1 (-2): 1, with walls thin or evenly thickened, the papillae 4-6, bifid, clustered around the periphery; basal marginal cells 10-20 µm wide and 3-4:1, extending slightly above the shoulders or as much as 3/4 the leaf length, the inner basal cells thick-walled, sometimes porose, 8-10 µm wide, 2-5:1. Setae ca. 13 mm long, red-brown, clockwise-twisted; capsules ca. 2 mm long, pale red-brown; annulus of 4-5 layers of vesiculose cells; exothecial cells rectangular to rhomboidal, 3-4:1, thin-walled; operculum ca. 1.2 mm long, with cells in counterclockwise-spiral rows; peristome teeth up to 300 µm long. Spores 10-13 µm, yellow-brown, weakly papillose.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 181

    P. squarrosa (Brid.) Lindb., Ofvers. Forh. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. 21:253.1864.

    Barbula squarrosa Brid., Bryol. Univ. 1: 833.1827.

    Trichostomum luteolum Besch., Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg 16: 178.1872.

    Pleurochaete luteola (Besch.) Ther., Smithsonian Misc. Collect. 78(2): 14. 1926.

    More robust plants with elongate leaf borders grade into smaller expressions with weaker, shorter borders and shorter leaf bases both in tropical regions and in the American Southeast.

  • Distribution

    On soil, rarely on bark at base of trees, at moderate elevations; Chiapas,Coahuila, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Veracruz.—Mexico; Guatemala; Ecuador and Peru; Haiti; southeastern and southwestern United States; northern and central Africa; Europe (especially in the south); Middle East; India, China, and Japan.

    Japan Asia| China Asia| India Asia| Europe| United States of America North America| Algeria Africa| Egypt Africa| Libya Africa| Morocco Africa| Tunisia Africa| Angola Africa| Cameroon Africa| Central African Republic Africa| Chad Africa| Democratic Republic of the Congo Africa| Republic of the Congo Africa| Equatorial Guinea Africa| Gabon Africa| São Tomé and Príncipe Africa| Haiti South America| Peru South America| Ecuador South America| Guatemala Central America| Mexico North America|