Bryum soboliferum Taylor

  • 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

    Bryaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Bryum soboliferum Taylor

  • Description

    Species Description - Medium-sized, hardly lustrous plants, in loose to dense tufts, up to 3 cm high, with a reddish tint below. Main stem very short, branched by 1 to few, slender, often elongate innovations. Leaves soft, hardly wrinkled or flexuous, appressed when dry, erect to erect-spreading when moist, up to 2.1 x 0.6 mm, ovate-lanceolate with a long-acuminate apex which is narrowed to a slender or capillary, crenulate to serrulate apiculus, often ± decurrent at the leaf base; margins nearly entire except along the apiculus, almost plane, but often narrowly reflexed at base; costa strong, ceasing a little below the base of the apiculus; cells oblong-rhomboidal, 45-65 x 12-14 µm, broader and rectangular below, rather abruptly narrower at the margin but not forming a distinct border. Innovation leaves rather distantly spaced almost throughout, smaller, with a narrow, much more decurrent base, less reflexed margins, and thinner costa. Dioicous. Setae slender, 2.7-3 cm long; capsules nutant, slenderly curved-clavate, up to 4.4 mm long, with a relatively long, slender neck and a relatively large, short-conic, finely apiculate operculum; segments of endostome widely perforate, cilia well-developed, nodulose or short-appendiculate. Spores 11-13 µm, slightly roughened.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 351

    B. soboliferum Tayl., London J. Bot. 5: 51. 1846.

    The narrow, long-tapered and long-apiculate leaves are more typical of Acidodontium than Bryum. Mexican plants have softer, more lanceolate, longer-apiculate leaves than South American plants but are otherwise similar. The capsules are quite long and slender.

  • Distribution

    On soil of banks; Tlaxcala.—Mexico; Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

    Mexico North America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Bolivia South America|