Physcomitrium pyriforme (Hedw.) Hampe

  • 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

    Funariaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Physcomitrium pyriforme (Hedw.) Hampe

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants gregarious, light-green, rather small, 3-10, rarely 25 mm high. Leaves 2-5 mm long, erect-spreading, ± contorted when dry, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, acuminate; margins plane, bluntly serrate in the upper half to subentire; costa subpercurrent or sometimes short-excurrent; upper cells moderately lax, pellucid, thin-walled, irregularly oblong-hexagonal, sometimes swollen along the margin and forming an indistinct border; lower cells oblong, somewhat inflated at the basal angles. Autoicous or polygamous. Setae about 6-14 mm long (rarely shorter, sometimes as much 30 mm); capsules (0.5-)1-2 mm long, globose-pyriform or shorturceolate, extremely variable in shape (when mature and dry typically contracted below a flaring mouth and at a short, distinct neck); annulus incompletely revoluble, with l(-2) rows of small, rectangular, vesiculose cells; exothecial cells rectangular with firm walls in ± vertical rows, those below the mouth oblate in 8-17 rows; operculum flat to slightly convex with prominent beak. Spores 24-50, rarely 80 µm, coarsely papillose or spiculose-papillose.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 321

    P. pyriforme (Hedw.) Hampe, Linnaea 11: 80. 1837.

    Gymnostomum pyriforme Hedw., Sp. Muse. 38. 1801.

    G. turbinatumMx., Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 286. 1803.

    G. dilatatum P.-Beauv., Prodr. Aetheog. 59. 1805.

    G. splachnoides P.-Beauv., Prodr. Aetheog. 59. 1805.

    G. tortipes Brid., Bryol. Univ. 1: 100. 1826.

    Physcomitrium turbinatum C. Miill. ex Lesq. & James, Man. Mosses N. Amer. 198. 1884, non (Mx.) Britt., 1894.

    P. pyriforme var. langloisii Ren. & Card., Rev. Bryol. 15: 70. 1888; also Bot. Gaz. 14:94.1889.

    P. strangulatum Kindb., Ottawa Naturalist 4: 62.1890.

    P. platyphyllum Kindb. ex Macoun & Kindb., Cat. Canad. Pl. 6: 269. 1892, non C.Mull., 1900.

    P. pyriforme var. floridanum Ren. & Card., Rev. Bryol. 19: 93. 1892.

    P. hookeri var. serratum Ren. & Card., Rev. Bryol. 19: 93.1892.

    P. australe Britt., Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 21: 201.1894.

    P. kellermaniiBritt., Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 21: 204.1894.

    P. drummondiiBritt., Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 21: 205.1894.

    P. platyphylloides Kindb., Rev. Bryol. 34: 28.1907, non Par., 1905.

    ?P. microcarpum Kindb., Rev. Bryol. 32:38.1905, non Kindb., 1910.

    ?P. rufipes Kindb., Rev. Bryol. 34: 27. 1907.

    ?P. pyriforme *P. rostellatum Kindb., Rev. Bryol. 34: 27. 1907.

    The species appears to be extremely rare and local in Mexico, although some collections referred to Physcomitrium subsphaericum are intermediate in form. It may favor a more mesic habitat than P. subsphaericum.

    Pyramidula tetragona (Brid.) Brid., wide-ranging in the central United States, occurs in Texas and New Mexico and may be expected in northern Mexico. It has some resemblance to Physcomitrium, but the setae are short and the capsules enclosed, even at maturity, in a large, 4-angled calyptra which tears lengthwise to allow spore dispersal.

  • Distribution

    On moist, exposed soil of disturbed habitats at elevations of 2000-2300 Chiapas (Sharp 3390, CANM, TENN) and Jalisco (McGregor 16634, CANM).—Mexico; widely distributed in eastern North America (from New Brunswick to Manitoba and Nebraska, south to Rorida and Texas; Alberta, Colorado, also reported from Utah and as P. kellermanii from Oregon and Saskatchewan); Europe, North Africa, Caucasus, and Macaronesia.

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