Phyllogonium viride Brid.

  • Authority

    Buck, William R. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 82: 1-400.

  • Family

    Phyllogoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Phyllogonium viride Brid.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants medium-sized or more typically robust, secondary stems 4-35 cm long, in lustrous, green to yellow-green to golden, pendent, often extensive, epiphytic colonies. Primary stems creeping, tightly attached to the substrate, with reduced, scale-like leaves, turning ca. 90° and becoming the pendent secondary stem, the creeping stem continuing by a bud from near the base of the secondary stem, secondary stems irregularly branched, the branches to ca. 8 cm long but typically shorter, pendent, strongly compla-nate-foliate, not at all turgid; in cross-section with 3-4 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding larger thinner-walled cells, central strand none; paraphyllia none; pseudoparaphyllia broadly foliose; axillary hairs with 1 (-2) short brown basal cells and 2-4(-5) elongate hyaline distal cells. Secondary stem and branch leaves not differentiated, little altered when dry, strongly complanate, spreading, narrowly lanceolate to oblong (in profile), 3-4 (-4.5) mm long, acute, with apex recurved and not at all retuse, conduplicate-cucullate, somewhat auriculate; margins subentire, incurved above or almost throughout; costa short and double or absent; cells linear, subflexuose, smooth, firm-walled, the walls ca. 1/2 the width of the lumina, porose, shorter and ± rhomboidal in the extreme apex, becoming somewhat shorter toward the yellowed insertion; alar cells reddish brown, subquadrate to short-rectangular, thick-walled, porose, in small, excavate groups. Asexual propagula none. Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves erect to convolute, oblong-lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, abruptly acuminate, concave but not conduplicate, not auriculate; margins entire or with a few small teeth at extreme apex, plane; costa short and double, poorly defined; cells linear, smooth, thick-walled, the walls ca. as thick as the lumina, porose; alar cells short-rectangular, thick-walled, porose. Setae short, smooth, reddish, 0.4-0.8 mm long; capsules immersed, erect and symmetric, short-cylindric, 1.5-2.5 mm long; exothecial cells quadrate to short-rectangular, firm-walled, becoming oblate in 1-3 rows at the mouth, stomata lacking; annulus of 1-2 rows of thick-walled oblate cells, falling in pieces; operculum obliquely conic-rostrate; peristome single (endostome absent), shallowly inserted below the mouth, exostome teeth pale, incurved when dry, erect when moist, linear-triangular, smooth, prostome well developed, not trabeculate at back. Spores spherical, anisospo-rous, 18-30 µm diam. and finely papillose, and 45-72 µm diam. and ± smooth. Calyptrae mitrate or split up one side, roughened, densely hairy, the hairs uniseriate, crispate.

  • Discussion

    1. Phyllogonium viride Brid., Bryol. Univ. 2: 673. 1827; Phyllogonium fulgens var. viride (Brid.) Renauld & Cardot, Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique 32(1); 184. 1893; Phyllogonium viscosum var. viride (Brid.) Paris, Index Bryol. Suppl. 269. 1900. Plate 61, figures 1-7 Phyllogonium immersum Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 423. 1869. Discussion. Phyllogonium viride is characterized by recurved leaf apices and immersed capsules. In well-developed material, the plants are larger and more strikingly flattened than those in P. fulgens. Phyllogonium viride seems most closely related to P. viscosum, distributed primarily in northeastern South America. As stated earlier, Lin (1983) reported P. viscosum from Puerto Rico and Jamaica but the records are suspect. The species may yet be found in the West Indies, most likely in Hispaniola. Vegetatively both species have recurved leaf apices, but in P. viride they are acute and usually strongly recurved whereas in P. viscosum they are truncate and slightly recurved. Phyllogonium viscosum (Plate 62, figures 1-7), like P. viride, is a robust plant, but differs from P. viride in the much more turgid habit and larger leaf auricles. Phyllogonium viscosum is similar to P. fulgens in its reproductive features: the capsules are exserted, the prostomes are rudimentary, and the calyptrae are cucullate and mostly naked.

  • Distribution

    Range. Mexico to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, southern Brazil, the Guianas, Trinidad, Réunion, Tristan da Cunha; Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada; growing pendent from branches and trunks of trees, rarely rocks, in humid and cloud forests, at (100-)500-1200 m.

    Mexico North America| Central America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Bolivia South America| Brazil South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Rico South America| Saint Kitts and Nevis South America| Montserrat South America| Guadeloupe South America| Dominica South America| Martinique South America| Saint Lucia South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Grenada South America|