Vesicularia vesicularis (Schwägr.) Broth. var. vesicularis
-
Authority
Buck, William R. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 82: 1-400.
-
Family
Hypnaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Variety Description - Plants mostly dark-green, smallish, in dense mats. Lateral and dorsal leaves not or slightly contorted when dry, ovate, apiculate; margins not bordered, entire to serrulate at extreme apex; cells hexagonal, 1-1.5:1; ventral leaves of similar shape to others but smaller, often with apices incurved; areolation similar to lateral leaves.
-
Discussion
la. Vesicularia vesicularis var. vesicularis (Schwägr.) Broth. Plate 122, figures 6-12 ? Pterygophyllum montagnei Bél., Voy. Indes Or., Bot. 2(Crypt.): 85. 1834; Hypnum montagnei (Bél.) Schimp. ex Mont, in Sagra, Hist. Phys. Cuba, Bot. Pl. Cell. 530. 1842 [Hist. Fis. Cuba, Bot. 2(9): 315. 1845]; Hookeria montagnei (Bél.) Schimp. ex Hampe, Linnaea 25: 363. 1852 [1853]; Ectropothecium montagnei (Bél.) A. Jaeger, Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1877-78: 269. 1880; Vesicularia montagnei (Bél.) Broth, in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1(3): 1094. 1908. Vesicularia malachitica Müll. Hal., Hedwigia 37: 251. 1898, fide Salmon, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 31: 309. 1904. Discussion. The var. vesicularis is characterized by ventral leaves of the same general shape and areolation as the lateral leaves, but smaller. The areolation of the leaves is lax and the cells are more or less isodiametric. The marginal cells of the lateral leaves are not narrower than the internal ones. This variety intergrades frequently with the next. Although the name Vesicularia montagnei has been used in the New World, specifically in Cuba, it is based on Old World material. The confusion arose when Montagne (1842), after acknowledging that Bélanger (1834) described the material from Java, cited material collected by Ramón de la Sagra from Cuba. The transfers into Hypnum and Hookeria were in Antillean publications. I have not seen the Javan type (presumably at PC) but I have examined a specimen cited by Fleischer (1923) from his exsiccati: Musci Frondosi Archipelagi Indici et Polynesiaci, serie X, no. 482 (1908). It is very similar to Antillean material in the short, lax cells of the lateral and dorsal leaves, as well as leaf size. It differs, perhaps significantly, in leaves that are slightly more abruptly tapering to a more slender apex that is sometimes twisted; also, the leaf cells are more incrassate. However, since the epithet vesicularis is older than montagnei, I have not bothered to survey thoroughly the variation of V. montagnei in the Old World. Certainly, though, if the morphology seen in Fleischer’s specimen had occurred in the West Indies, it would have been considered V. vesicularis. In a genus disturbingly devoid of well-marked species, I have not attempted to define extralimital taxa.
-
Distribution
Range. Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), St. Kitts; growing on a wide range of substrates, in shaded, very humid environments, usually from sea level to ca. 1000 m. Widely reported in tropical America and southern Florida, but no attempt has been made to verify the determinations on which these accounts are based.
Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Saint Kitts and Nevis South America| United States of America North America|