Campylium chrysophyllum (Brid.) Lange

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Campyliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Campylium chrysophyllum (Brid.) Lange

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants medium-sized, in soft, ± lustrous, yellow-green to yellow-brown, rarely green, dense mats. Stems creeping or somewhat ascending, to ca. 8 cm long, but often only 3-5 cm, irregularly pinnately branched; in cross-section with 2-4 rows of small very thick-walled cells surrounding larger but still thick-walled cells, central strand of small thin-walled cells; paraphyllia absent; pseudoparaphyllia broadly foliose; axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and 2-3 elongate hyaline distal cells. Stem and branch leaves scarcely differentiated, crowded, wide-spreading to subsquarrose, lanceolate or more commonly with an expanded base, 1-1.5 mm long (apparently longer in extralimital populations), gradually to ± abruptly slenderly long-acuminate, channeled, shallowly concave, cordate at base, short-decurrent; margins entire to distantly crenulate throughout, erect; costa mostly single, ending at midleaf or slightly beyond, sometimes shorter and single to short and double (on a single stem); cells very long-rectangular to linear, with blunt ends, 7-10:1, smooth, thick-walled, porose; alar cells differentiated in extreme angles, mostly not reaching the costa, ± excavate, quadrate to short-rectangular, often thick-walled, porose, enlarged, not inflated or with 1-2 decurrent cells somewhat inflated, colored, sometimes with a group of thin-walled short-rectangular cells above them, other cells across the insertion short-rectangular, thick-walled, porose, colored. Asexual propagula none. Dioicous. Perichaetia enlarged, conspicuous; leaves erect, sheathing, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate-triangular, to ca. 3.5 mm long, gradually long-acuminate, sometimes piliferous, striate; margins entire or occasionally with a few coarse teeth at the base of the acumen, plane to erect; costa single, ending somewhat above midleaf, sometimes shorter or even absent; cells long-rectangular to linear, smooth, thick-walled, porose, becoming broader and thinner-walled toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Setae elongate, smooth, orange to reddish, 2-3 cm long, straight to flexuose; capsules inclined to horizontal, arcuate, asymmetric, cylindric, ca. 3 mm long, with a distinct neck; exothecial cells subquadrate to short-rectangular, thick-walled; annulus of 1-2(-3) rows of thick-walled, pale cells, slightly larger than those of the exothecium; operculum conic (not seen); exostome teeth yellow-brown, shouldered, strongly bordered, on the front surface cross-striolate below, coarsely papillose above, trabeculate at back; endostome finely papillose with a high basal membrane, segments keeled, not or very narrowly perforate, cilia in groups of 2-3, almost as long as the segments, appendiculate. Spores spherical, finely papillose, 14-20 µm diam. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth.

  • Discussion

    4. Campylium chrysophyllum (Brid.) Lange, Nomencl. Fl. Danic. 210. 1887; Hypnum chrysophyllum Brid., Muscol. Recent. 2(2): 84. 1801; Hypnum polymorphum Hook. & Taylor var. chrysophyllum (Brid.) Schimp. in Bruch, Schimp. & W. Gümbel, Bryol. Eur. 6(fasc. 57-61, Monogr. 15): 89. 1854; Amblystegium chrysophyllum (Brid.) De Not., Atti Reale Univ. Genova 1 (Epil. Briol. Ital.): 148. 1869; Chrysohypnum chrysophyllum (Brid.) Loeske, Moosfl. Harz. 303. 1903; Campyliadelphus chrysophyllus (Brid.) R. S. Chopra, Tax. Indian Mosses (Bot. Monogr. 10:) 443. 1975, comb, invai, Kanda, J. Sci. Hiroshima Univ., Ser. B, Div. 2, Bot. 15: 264. 1975 [1976]. Plate 84, figures 16-22 Microthamnium ekmanii Thér., Rev. Bryol. Lichénol. 14: 22. 1944; Mittenothamnium ekmanii (Thér.) H. A. Crum & Steere, Amer. Midl. Naturalist 60: 49. 1958. Discussion. Campyliwn chrysophyllum is characterized by its wide-spreading to subsquarrose leaves with thick-walled, porose leaf cells, typically single costa, and thick-walled, noninflated alar cells. Although always illustrated and described as singly costate, this is just the typical condition— some leaves on most stems have a short double costa. Although C. chrysophyllum seems to be consistently cited in the literature as smaller in stature than the similar C. stellatum, in the West Indies the reverse is true. Campylium chrysophyllum is consistently more robust than C. stellatum, usually with leaves less squarrose, and in more extensive, denser mats.

  • Distribution

    Range. Newfoundland to the Yukon and British Columbia in Canada, south to Arizona and Florida, northern Central America, Europe, northern Africa, Himalaya, eastern Asia; Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic); growing on soil, in open or disturbed, often calcareous areas, frequently above 1500 m.

    Canada North America| United States of America North America| Central America| Europe| Algeria Africa| Egypt Africa| Tunisia Africa| Libya Africa| Morocco Africa| Sudan Africa| China Asia| Bhutan Asia| Pakistan Asia| India Asia| Nepal Asia| China Asia| Japan Asia| Mongolia Asia| North Korea Asia| South Korea Asia| Taiwan Asia| Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America|