Wijkia flagellifera (Broth.) H.A.Crum

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sematophyllaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Wijkia flagellifera (Broth.) H.A.Crum

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants medium-sized, in often lustrous, ± stiff, bright-green to golden, often dense, smallish mats. Stems creeping, to ca. 6 cm long, subpinnately branched, the branches erect to ascending, often with flagellate branches; in cross-section with 3-5 rows of small thick-walled cells surrounding large firm-walled cells, central strand absent; outer pseudoparaphyllia foliose, the inner ones subfilamentous; axillary hairs with (1-)2 short brown basal cells and 3-4 elongate hyaline distal cells. Stem and branch leaves differentiated, stem leaves erect- to wide-spreading, ovate, 0.651.25 mm long, abruptly slenderly acuminate; margins serrulate almost to base, more strongly so above, plane; costa short and double; cells long-hexagonal to linear-flexuose, smooth or very rarely prorulose at upper ends at back, firm- to thick-walled, obscurely porose; alar cells enlarged and inflated, colored, in 2-4 rows in the extreme angles, colored but otherwise not strikingly differentiated across most of insertion. Branch leaves erect to erect-spreading, mostly restricted to branch bases because branch apices mostly flagellate, broadly lanceolate, 0.55-0.85 mm long, ± gradually and broadly acuminate, concave; margins serrulate throughout, plane; costa short and double or absent; cells long-hexagonal to linear-flexuose, smooth or very rarely prorulose at upper ends at back, firm- to thick-walled, obscurely porose; alar cells enlarged and inflated, colored, in 1-3 rows in the extreme angles. Asexual propagula common, of flagellate branches, <1 cm long, arising from branch leaf axils, the leaves appressed, lanceolate, serrulate, smaller than branch leaves. Dioicous. Sporophytes unknown.

  • Discussion

    1. Wijkia flagellifera (Broth.) H. A. Crum, Bryologist 74: 172. 1971; Trichosteleum flagelliferum Broth., Bih. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl. 21, Afd. 3(3): 54. 1895; Acanthocladium flagelliferum (Broth.) Broth. in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1(3): 1076. 1908. Plate 137, figures 1-9 Acanthocladium subflagelliferum Bizot, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon 34: 323. 1965; Wijkia subflagellifera (Bizot) W. R. Buck & Steere, Moscosoa 2: 51. 1983. Discussion. Wijkia flagellifera is the only local member of the Sematophyllaceae with flagellate branches, other than Aptychella proligera. In Wijkia, however, the flagellate branches are relatively stiff and mostly less than 1 cm long. In Aptychella the flagellate branches are almost silky, and often much more than 2 cm in length. Wijkia flagellifera may also be distinguished by differentiated stem and branch leaves, with multi-tiered alar cells, especially in the stem leaves. Apparently a rare species, known only from a few collections in the West Indies, W. flagellifera is disjunct from southern Brazil. West Indian material was described as Acanthocladium subflagelliferum on the basis of supposedly having more numerous flagellate branches and narrower, more acuminate stem leaves than the Brazilian material (Bizot, 1965). However, examination of the eight Brazilian syntypes of W. flagellifera, as well as numerous other Brazilian collections, verifies that the variation in Brazil completely encompasses that of the Antillean plants. The supposed difference of more acuminate stem leaves in Antillean plants is particularly puzzling since Brazilian material tends to have more acuminate leaves and this longer-acuminate form is the basis for the additional synonym of the aptly named Acanthocladium piliferum Sehnem. The only other tropical American species of the genus may be distinguished by the broader, shorter-tipped branch leaves in W. costaricensis (E. B. Bartram) H. A. Crum, and by the broader stem leaves and more or less abruptly tapered branch leaves in W. subnitida (Hampe) H. A. Crum. Very close in appearance to W. flagellifera is the Himalayan/Southeast Asian W. surcularis (Mitt.) H. A. Crum; it may be distinguished, however, by the larger, single-tiered alar cells.

  • Distribution

    Range. Southern Brazil; Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic); growing on branches and tree trunks, occasionally on old wood, in humid forests, at 1000-1900 m.

    Brazil South America| Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America|