Campylium quisqueyanum W.R.Buck

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Campyliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Campylium quisqueyanum W.R.Buck

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants slender, in soft, dull, green to yellow-green, often dense mats. Stems creeping to ascending, to ca. 2 cm long, but often only 1 cm, irregularly branched, the branches often ascending; in cross-section with 1-3 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding large firm-walled cells, central strand of small thin-walled cells; paraphyllia absent; pseudoparaphyllia filamentous to narrowly foliose; axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and a single elongate hyaline distal cell. Stem and branch leaves scarcely differentiated, laxly disposed on the stem, wide-spreading to squarrose, lanceolate, 0.35-0.6 mm long, gradually to ± abruptly acuminate from a sometimes expanded base, with the shallowly channeled acumen longer than the base, often twice as long, concave, slightly decurrent; margins serrulate throughout, plane to erect; costa short and double or, more typically, absent; cells long-hexagonal, subflexuose, ca. 6-10:1, often low-prorulose at upper cell ends in the leaf base but not in the acumen, firm-walled, not porose; alar cells differentiated in small groups in the extreme angles, not reaching the costa, quadrate to short-rectangular, not colored. Asexual propagula none. Autoicous (?), none of the old, small, bud-like (?) perigonia with antheridia. Perichaetia enlarged, conspicuous; leaves erect, somewhat sheathing with spreading apices, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate-triangular, 1.1-1.7 mm long, gradually long-acuminate, subpiliferous, substriate; margins serrulate above, distantly serrulate below, plane to erect; costa none; cells linear, subflexuose, smooth, thin-walled, not porose, becoming shorter, broader, and rectangular toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Setae elongate, smooth, reddish, 11.5 cm long, twisted when dry, flexuose; capsules inclined, arcuate, asymmetric, short-cylindric, 1-1.5 mm long, abruptly contracted to a slender neck; exothecial cells isodiametric to short-rectangular, firm-walled; annulus and operculum unknown; exostome teeth yellow-brown, shouldered, strongly bordered, on the front surface cross-striolate below, coarsely papillose above, trabeculate at back; endostome with a high, smooth basal membrane, segments finely papillose, keeled, not or narrowly perforate, cilia mostly single, shorter than the segments, nodulose to short-appendiculate. Spores spherical, papillose, 11-14 µm diam. Calyptrae unknown.

  • Discussion

    1. Campylium quisqueyanum W. R. Buck, Beih. Nova Hedwigia 90; 338. 1988; Campylophyllum quiqueyanum (W. R. Buck) Hedenäs, Bryologist 100: 76. 1997. Plate 83, figures 10-15 Discussion. Campylium quisqueyanum is recognized by its very small stature with laxly disposed leaves. The leaves are relatively narrow with a very long acumen, often almost twice as long as the leaf base. It most closely resembles the Andean C. trichocladum (Taylor) Broth, in its small size and lanceolate leaves, but differs in much longer leaf apices, cells in the leaf base prorulose, and arcuate capsules. It is readily distinguished from C. praegracile, the only other member of the C. hispidulum complex in the West Indies, by laxly disposed leaves that are consistently shorter and have relatively longer apices.

  • Distribution

    Range. Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic); usually growing over thin soil over rocks, in exposed sites, above 1500 m.

    Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America|