Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw.
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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
Hypnaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants small to medium-sized, in often lustrous, soft to stiff, mostly golden, sometimes green or brownish green, dense mats. Stems creeping, to ca. 5 cm long, irregularly but freely branched, the branches short, often with hooked apices; in cross-section without a hyalodermis, with 2-4 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding larger thinner-walled cells, central strand very small, of small thin-walled cells; pseudoparaphyllia narrowly foliose; axillary hairs with a 2 short brown basal cells and 3 elongate short hyaline distal cells. Stem and branch leaves somewhat differentiated, stem leaves erect or occasionally ± falcate-secund, oblong-ovate, 2.2-2.8 mm long, gradually to ± abruptly long-acuminate, the leaf apices often broken, concave, not plicate; margins serrulate above, subentire below, plane to erect; costa short and double or none; cells long-hexagonal, subflexuose, 6-12:1, smooth, firm- to thick-walled, weakly porose, becoming broader and more porose toward the insertion; alar cells well differentiated in basal angles, numerous, quadrate to subquadrate, extending up the margins by 8-12 cells, the lower ones colored, thick-walled, not porose, opaque. Branch leaves homomallous to falcate-secund, occasionally erect, oblong-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.1-1.9 mm long, gradually acuminate, concave, not plicate; margins serrulate above, subentire below, plane to erect; costa short and double or none; cells as in stem leaves. Asexual propagula none. Dioicous. [Sporophytes unknown from the West Indies; description based on North American material.] Perichaetia conspicuous; leaves oblong-lanceolate, ca. 3-3.5 mm long, gradually acuminate, plicate; margins serrulate above, entire below, plane; costa none; cells linear, smooth, thick-walled, porose, short-rectangular toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Setae elongate, smooth, orange, 3-4 cm long, twisted; capsules suberect, asymmetric, curved-cylindric, ca. 2 mm long; exothecial cells quadrate to rectangular, firm-walled, not collenchymatous; annulus of 1-2 rows of elongate thick-walled cells, deciduous; operculum short conic-rostrate, straight; exostome teeth shouldered, bordered, on the front surface cross-striolate below, papillose above, trabeculate at back; endostome papillose, with a high basal membrane, segments broad, keeled, narrowly perforate, ca. as long as the teeth, cilia in groups of 1-3, nodulose. Spores spherical, finely papillose, 13-20 pm long. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth.
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Discussion
3. Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw., Sp. Musc. Frond. 291. 1801. Plate 119, figures 10-17 Discussion. Hypnum cupressiforme is characterized by concave, nonplicate leaves with a large area of thick-walled alar cells. The plants are not likely to be confused with our other two Hypnum species, which are both plicate and usually regularly pinnately branched. The leaves of the Hispaniolan plants (from which the gametophytic portions of the above description was derived) are not very falcate-secund. The West Indian material is somewhat intermediate between typical H. cupressiforme and the var. lacunosum Brid. This variety, known sporadically throughout the range of the species, is probably little more than a form of high light exposures. Ando (1989, 1990, 1992, 1993) has treated H. cupressiforme and its 9 varieties in great detail.
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Distribution
Range. Reportedly almost cosmopolitan, in tropical America from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Venezuela south to Chile; Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic); mostly growing on calcareous soil and rocks, sometimes on rotten logs, mostly in open pine forests, above 1500 m.
Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Colombia South America| South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America|