Schoenobryum concavifolium (Griff.) Gangulee

Authority

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

Family

Cryphaeaceae

Scientific Name

Schoenobryum concavifolium (Griff.) Gangulee

Description

Species Description - Plants slender to medium-sized, the secondary stems to ca. 6 cm long, but often only 2-3 cm long, in bright- to dark-green to golden, mostly thin but sometimes extensive, epiphytic colonies. Primary stems creeping, very slender, inconspicuous, with reduced, scale-like leaves, turning ca. 90° and becoming the secondary stem, the creeping stem continuing by a bud from near the base of the secondary stem, secondary stems usually erect, freely irregularly branched, not complanate-foliate; in cross-section with 3-5 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding abruptly larger firm-walled cells, central strand none; paraphyllia none; pseudoparaphyllia occasionally filamentous (uniseriate) but mostly narrowly foliose (biseriate); axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and 2-3(-4) short or elongate hyaline distal cells. Secondary stem and branch leaves similar, appressed when dry, rapidly spreading to wide-spreading when moist, ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 1.1-1.7 mm long, gradually short-acuminate, concave, broadly decurrent; margins subentire or more often serrulate above, entire below, usually recurved below, plane above or occasionally throughout; costa single, often broad, ending near midleaf; cells oval, 1.5-3:1, smooth or prorulose at upper ends, firm-walled, often narrower and longer in the acumen (the more slender the acumen, the narrower the cells), becoming linear-flexuose and ± porose juxta-costally toward the insertion; alar cells gradually differentiated from and similar to median cells, in more obvious rows and less rounded, often oblate. Asexual propagula none. Autoicous. Perichaetia conspicuous, terminal on secondary stems and branches; leaves strongly differentiated, erect with slightly flexuose apices, oblong-obovate, the innermost ones abruptly awned, the lamina ca. 1.7-2.1 mm long, often extending up the awn more on one side than the other, the awn ca. 0.6 mm long and finely spinose throughout; margins entire to crenulate, plane; costa single, extending throughout lamina; cells short like those of vegetative leaves in upper 1/3 or less, smooth or prorulose, long-rectangular to linear and thin-walled below, smooth. Setae very short, almost completely embedded in the vaginula, smooth, ca. 0.15 mm long; capsules immersed, erect and symmetric, ovoid, ca. 1.4 mm long, broadest below midurn; exothecial cells short-rectangular, thin-walled, becoming smaller and subquadrate to oblate toward the mouth; annulus revoluble, of 1-2 rows of small, very thick-walled cells; operculum high-conic to short-rostrate, 0.4-0.5 mm long; exostome teeth linear-triangular, not bordered or shouldered, on the front surface with a relatively straight median line, not trabeculate at back, papillose-spiculose throughout, the papillae strongly branched; endostome none. Spores ± spherical, finely papillose, 20-31 µm diam. Calyptrae conic-mitrate, naked, roughened by projecting upper cell ends.

Discussion

1. Schoenobryum concavifolium (Griff.) Gangulee, Mosses E. India 5: 1209. 1976; Orthotrichum concavifolium Griff., Calcutta J. Nat. Hist. 2: 484. 1841 [1842]; Cryphaea concavifolia (Griff.) Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. Suppl. 1: 125. 1859; Acrocryphaea concavifolia (Griff.) Bosch & Sande Lac., Bryol. Jav. 2: 106. 1864, comb, inval.; Schoenobryum concavifolium (Griff.) R. S. Chopra, Tax. Indian Mosses 301. 1975, comb, inval.; Schoenobryum concavifolium (Griff.) Manuel, Bryologist 80: 523. 1977, comb, superfl. Plate 65, figures 1-9 Grimmia julacea Hornsch. in Mart., Fl. Bras. 1(2): 7. 1840, horn, illeg., non (Hedw.) F. Weber & D. Mohr, Index Mus. Pl. Crypt. 2. 1803; Schoenobryum julaceum Dozy & Molk., Musci Frond. Ined. Archip. Ind. 6: 184. 1848; Acrocryphaea julacea (Dozy & Molk.) Bruch & Schimp. in Bruch, Schimp. & W. Gümbel, Bryol. Eur. 5(fasc. 44-45, Monogr. 5): 32. 1850, comb. inval.; Pilotrichum julaceum (Dozy & Molk.) Müll. Hal., Syn. Musc. Frond. 2: 173. 1851; Cryphaea julacea (Dozy & Molk.) Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 415. 1869; Acrocryphaea mexicana Schimp. ex Besch., Mém. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg 16: 217. 1872, nom. illeg.; Schoenobryum julaceum (Hornsch.) O. Yano, Bol. Inst. Bot. (São Paulo) 10: 127. 1996, comb, inval. et hom, illeg. Cryphaea leiboldii Müll. Hal., Linnaea 18: 680. 1844 [1845], fide Müll. Hal., Syn. Muse. Frond. 2: 173. 1851. Cryphaea gardneri Müll., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. Suppl. 1: 125. 1859; Acrocryphaea gardneri (Mitt.) A. Jaeger, Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1874-75: 178. 1876, comb, inval.; Schoenobryum gardneri (Mitt.) Manuel, Bryologist 80: 523. 1977. Cryphaea welwitschii Duby, Mém. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Genève 21: 426. 1871; Acrocryphaea welwitschii (Duby) Broth, in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1(3): 738. 1905; Schoenobryum welwitschii (Duby) Manuel, Bryologist 80: 524. 1977. Acrocryphaea julacea var. costaricensis Renauld & Cardot, Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique 32(1): 175. 1893 [1894], nom. illeg.; Schoenobryum julaceum var. costaricense (Renauld & Cardot) Manuel, Bryologist 80: 523. 1977, fide Manuel, J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 49: 133. 1981. Cryphaea coffeae Müll. Hal., Hedwigia 37: 240. 1898; Acrocryphaea cojfeae (Müll. Hal.) Paris, Index Bryol. Suppl. 1: 1. 1900; Schoenobryum cojfeae (Müll. Hal.) Manuel, Bryologist 80: 523. 1977. Acrocryphaea coffeae var. laxiretis Thér., Mem. Soc. Cub. Hist. Nat. “Felipe Poey” 14: 355. 1940, nom. inval. Discussion. Schoenobryum concavifolium is characterized by ovate leaves with margins narrowly recurved below and costa ending near midleaf. The cells are oval throughout and usually prorulose. The immersed, singly peristomate capsules terminating both the secondary stems and the branches easily characterize the species. The only possible confusion is when material is sterile, and then it is very like Cryphaea filiformis. In S. concavifolium the leaf margins are usually narrowly recurved, but they are plane in C. filiformis. Also, in S. concavifolium the juxtacostal cells near the insertion are usually more or less flexuose and porose. See the discussion under C. filiformis for more differences. I have taken a geographically broad concept of this species. I have not seen the type of either Orthotrichum concavifolium or Grimmia julacea Hornsch., but all material so named seems inseparable from the variation seen within the West Indies. Although I have not had the opportunity to study all the South American types, I have only seen what I interpret as two species in the New World. The second species is S. rubricaule (Mitt.) Manuel [syn. S. mittenii (A. Jaeger) Manuel], It differs from S. concavifolium in the abruptly apiculate leaves and perichaetial leaves with longer awns. It occurs in Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador. The southern Brazilian S. leptopteris (Müll. Hal.) Manuel is not a Schoenobryum but a Cryphaea as described. It is similar to C. patens but differs in having slender branches with differentiated leaves. I also surveyed the African material of Schoenobryum at NY for this study. With the exception of the type of C. welwitschii and two Madagas-caran collections, all material seems to represent a single species that I have tentatively called S. robustum (Broth.) Manuel. The leaves are broadly ovate and abruptly short-acuminate to cuspidate, and the margins broadly recurved almost throughout. It is similar to S. rubricaule.

Distribution

Range. Florida (Collier Co.), Mexico to Panama, Colombia to Peru and Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina, Angola, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Java, Philippines; Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico; growing on tree trunks and branches, in open areas in mesic forests, at near sea level to 1800 m.

United States of America North America| Mexico North America| Central America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Bolivia South America| Brazil South America| Paraguay South America| Argentina South America| Angola Africa| Madagascar Africa| India Asia| Sri Lanka Indonesia Asia| Philippines Asia| Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Rico South America|