Pilotrichum lophophyllum Sull.
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Authority
Buck, William R. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 82: 1-400.
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Family
Pilotrichaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants relatively small and slender, in dull-green to golden, often dense patches. Stems creeping, with small scale-like leaves, the primary branches erect, to 4 cm tall, usually ca. 1.5 cm tall, irregularly to regularly pinnate to irregularly bipinnate; in crosssection with 2-4 rows of small thick-walled colored cells surrounding larger thin-walled cells, central strand none; pseudoparaphyllia filamentous; axillary hairs 2-celled, with a short brown basal cell and an elongate hyaline distal cell. Secondary branch leaves fairly crowded, erect when dry, erect-spreading to spreading when moist, broadly ovate, 0.3-0.6 mm long, gradually acute to short-acuminate, somewhat concave, not decurrent; margins serrulate throughout, especially at and below widest part of leaf, plane throughout or irregularly erect; costa double, ± unequal, ± parallel in upper 1/2, ending ca. 3/4 the leaf length to subpercurrent, with a medium-high crest 2-6 cells high; cells elliptical to rounded-oblong, prorulose or rarely smooth, thick-walled, not or scarcely porose, apical cells not differentiated, those near margins and at leaf shoulders shorter, subquadrate, becoming longer, thicker-walled, porose, and often colored toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Asexual propagula frequently produced at apex of costa, uniseriate, brown, to ca. 12 cells long, roughened. Dioicous. Perichaetia relatively inconspicuous, on primary branches; leaves erect, lanceolate-triangular, 0.6-1.1 mm long, gradually acuminate; margins distantly serrulate, plane; costa double, diverging throughout, ending near midleaf, not crested; cells rounded-oblong to ± linear, inconspicuously prorulose to smooth, thick-walled, porose, long-rectangular in a single marginal row in lower ½ of leaf, forming an indistinct border, becoming shorter and colored at the insertion. Setae short, stout, smooth above, slightly roughened at base, reddish, 0.7-1.1 mm long, straight or slightly curved; capsules exserted, erect, ovoid to short-cylindric, symmetric, 1.2-1.5 mm long; exothecial cells short-rectangular, firm-walled, not collenchymatous; annulus not seen; operculum not seen; exostome teeth pale, narrowly triangular, not bordered, not shouldered, on the front surface with a straight or obscurely zigzag median line, strongly spiculose throughout, slightly trabeculate at back; endostome pale, spiculose, without a basal membrane or with a very low, discontinuous one, segments slender, ± keeled, not perforate, shorter than the teeth, cilia none. Spores spherical to oval, finely roughened, almost smooth, 14-20(-25) µm diam. Calyptrae not seen.
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Discussion
3. Pilotrichum lophophyllum Sulk, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 5: 284. 1861; Eupilotrichum lophophyllum (Sull.) Müll. Hal., Hedwigia 37: 242. 1898, nom. inval.; Callicosta lophophylla (Sull.) Crosby, Bryologist 81: 436. 1978. Plate 29, figure 3; plate 30, figures 11-15 Discussion. Pilotrichum lophophyllum is the species with the smallest stature in the genus. The plants are often irregularly and sparsely pinnate but can become, when well developed, bipinnate. When fresh the plants are a duller green than in most other species. The small leaves are broadly ovate with relatively strong, crested costae. In the West Indies, it is likely to be confused only with P. compositum. However, that species is usually more densely pinnate with brighter, yellower-green, larger leaves. Also in P lophophylla the propagula are apical and common rather than rare and basal as in P. compositum.
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Distribution
Range. Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico; usually growing on tree trunks or branches, sometimes logs, usually in humid forests, at 150-1100 m.
Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Rico South America|