Barbula agraria 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

    Pottiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Barbula agraria Hedw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants green above, brown below. Stems little-branched, often freely radiculose, up to 20 mm high. Leaves when dry erect or ± spreading and incurved, when moist ± spreading (up to 45°), oblong, elhptic, or spatulate, broadly channeled to concave, 1.2-2 mm long, broadly acute, the base oblong; margins plane, entire to weakly serrulate at the apex; costa stoutly short-excurrent as a sharp, often curved apiculus or occasionally merely percurrent, covered dorsally and ventrally by elongate cells, the ventral stereids poorly represented and hydroids lacking; upper cells subquadrate to short-rectangular or oblong-rhombic, (8—)11—13(—15) µm wide, 1-2:1, occasionally bistratose in patches at the margins or elsewhere, bulging on the ventral surface, plane on the dorsal, without papillae; basal cells differentiated in the lower 1/3 or less, rectangular. Dioicous (or possibly rhizautoicous). Perigonia produced on small plants found only in the vicinity of female plants. Inner perichaetial leaves smaller than stem leaves, about 1.5 mm long, sheathing, occasionally serrulate; cells largely elongate. Setae 4-10 mm long, red-brown; capsules 0.3-1.7 mm long, ± sulcate when dry, cylindric to ellipsoidal, red-brown to brown; annulus revoluble; operculum 0.8-1.5 mm long, long-conic; peristome twisted counterclockwise 1.5-2 times, 500-1200 µm long, orange, densely spiculose.Spores 9-11 µm, weakly papillose.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 219

    B. agraria Hedw., Sp. Muse. 116. 1801.

    Tortula agraria (Hedw.) P.-Beauv., Prodr. Aetheog. 91. 1805.

    Barbula agraria is quite different from other species of the genus in its broad, spatulate leaves with smooth cells bulging on the upper surface, as well as its revoluble annulus. It belongs in the monotypic subgenus Hyophiladelphus (C. Miill.) Zand.

  • Distribution

    On soil, walls, or rock (coral, limestone, sandstone, or brick), up to 350 alt.; Campeche, Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatan.—Mexico; Guatemala; West Indies; northern South America.

    Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| West Indies| Brazil South America| Peru South America| Ecuador South America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America|