Herpetineuron toccoae (Sull. & Lesq.) Cardot
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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
Anomodontaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants mostly medium-sized, in stiff, dull, dark-green (when living) to yellow-brown mats. Primary stems creeping, to ca. 5 cm long, slender, rhizome-like, radiculose, 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 ascending, curved when dry, sparsely and irregularly branched; in cross-section with 6-8 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding larger thin-walled cells, central strand small, of small thin-walled cells; paraphyllia none; pseudoparaphyllia none; axillary hairs 6-7-celled, all cells hyaline and ± equal-sized or the basal 3 somewhat shorter than the apical ones. Stem and secondary stem/branch leaves differentiated, primary stem leaves widely spaced, pale, deltoid, 0.3-0.7 mm long, short- to long-acuminate, with entire margins, otherwise like secondary stem leaves; secondary stem leaves erect to ± falcate and subtubulose when dry, erect-spreading and concave when moist, ovate-lanceolate, (1-)1.5-2.6 mm long, acute to short-acuminate, ± plicate at base, not or scarcely decurrent; margins coarsely serrate near apex with multicellular teeth, serrulate below almost to base, plane above, narrowly recurved near insertion; costa single, strong, flexuose in upper 1/2-1/3, sub-percurrent to percurrent (to short-excurrent); cells homogeneous throughout leaf, rhombic to subquadrate, 6-8 µm wide, smooth, firm-walled; alar cells not differentiated. Asexual propagula often of microphyllous flagellate branches. Dioicous. [Sporophytes unknown in the West Indies; description based on Japanese material.] Perichaetial leaves pale, erect, sheathing, oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm long, long and slenderly acuminate; margins entire, plane; costa single, straight, ending in the acumen; cells irregularly shaped, ca. 6:1, smooth, very thick-walled, shorter and thinner-walled toward the margins, becoming shorter and rectangular toward the insertion. Setae elongate, smooth, orange to reddish, 0.9-1.5 cm long, flexuose; capsules erect and symmetric, cylindric, 2-3 mm long, gradually constricted at mouth when dry; exothecial cells short-rectangular, thin-walled, becoming quadrate in 3-5 rows toward the mouth; annulus of 1-2 rows of enlarged, very thick-walled cells; operculum high-conic, ca. 1 mm long; exostome teeth bone-white when dry, yellowish white when moist, narrowly triangular, long, not shouldered, narrowly bordered, coarsely papillose throughout, not trabeculate at back; endostome coarsely papillose, with a medium-high basal membrane, segments slender, stout, short, keeled, narrowly perforate, ca. 1/3 the length of the teeth, cilia none. Spores spherical, papillose, 11-17 µm diam. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth.
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Discussion
1. Herpetineuron toccoae (Sull.) Cardot, Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 19(2): 127. 1905 [1906]; Anomodon toccoae Sull. & Lesq. ex Sull. in A. Gray, Manual, ed. 2, 658. 1856; Thamnium toccoae (Sull.) Kindb., Canad. Rec. Sci. 6: 19. 1894. Plate 66, figures 1-7 Discussion. Herpetineuron toccoae is recognized by its secondary stems curved when dry and leaves coarsely serrate above with a flexuose costa and small, smooth cells. The species is widespread; it was described from Toccoa Falls, Georgia. The species is rarely fertile in the Americas (only female plants seen from the Dominican Republic), but not uncommonly so in eastern Asia.
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Distribution
Range. United States (North Carolina to Illinois, south to Florida and Arizona), Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Tanzania, South Africa, eastern Asia; Hispaniola (Dominican Republic); usually growing on rocks, less often at the bases of trees, usually in sheltered hardwood forests, at 1000-1600 m.
United States of America North America| Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Honduras Central America| Nicaragua Central America| Bolivia South America| Brazil South America| Paraguay South America| Tanzania Africa| South Africa Africa| China Asia| Japan Asia| Mongolia Asia| South Korea Asia| North Korea Asia| Taiwan Asia| Dominican Republic South America|