Trichosteleum vincentinum (Mitt.) A.Jaeger

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sematophyllaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Trichosteleum vincentinum (Mitt.) A.Jaeger

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants mostly small to medium-sized, in somewhat lustrous, ± soft, mostly golden-green to golden, dense, often extensive mats. Stems creeping, to ca. 2 cm long, reddish, freely but irregularly branched, the branches laxly terete-foliate; in cross-section with 1-2 rows of small thick-walled colored cells surrounding large thin-walled cells, central strand absent; pseudoparaphyllia seemingly none; axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and 2-3 elongate hyaline distal cells. Stem and branch leaves similar, erect-spreading, oblong-lanceolate, 1.25-1.35 X 0.15-0.21 mm, mostly abruptly long-acuminate, the acumen often twisted but not flexuose, somewhat concave; margins denticulate throughout, plane; costa very short and double or absent; cells linear, unipapillose in upper 3/5 of leaf, ± firm-walled, becoming thicker-walled and ± porose toward the insertion, the papillae over most but not all cells, obscure to prominent, but <10 µm tall, narrower in diameter than the lumina width, usually rounded on top; alar cells greatly enlarged and inflated, oblong to oval, usually orange, 2(-3) at each basal angle. Asexual propagula none. Autoicous. Perichaetial leaves erect, lanceolate, 1.25-1.6 mm long, gradually long-acuminate; margins serrate above, subentire to serrulate below, plane; costa mostly none; cells linear, smooth, thick-walled, porose, becoming laxly rectangular toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Setae elongate, slender, usually strongly roughened just below the urn, reddish, 0.8-1 cm long, curved just below the urn; capsules inclined to pendent, small, asymmetric, ovoid-cylindric, 0.5-0.8 mm long; exothecial cells subquadrate, strongly collenchymatous, becoming smaller, oblate, and evenly thin-walled in 1-3 rows at the mouth; annulus not differentiated; operculum obliquely and slenderly long-rostrate; exostome teeth narrowly triangular, shouldered, bordered, on the front surface with a broad median furrow, cross-striolate below, coarsely papillose above, trabeculate at back; endostome with a high basal membrane, segments papillose, broad, keeled, perforate, almost as long as the teeth, cilia single. Spores spherical, finely papillose, 15-17 µm diam. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, roughened above.

  • Discussion

    2. Trichosteleum vincentinum (Mitt.) A. Jaeger, Ber. Thatigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1876-77: 416. 1878; Sematophyllum vincentinum Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 493. 1869; Rhaphidostegium vincentinum (Sull.) Besch., Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. VI, 3: 251. 1876. Plate 138, figures 1-8 Sematophyllum microcarpum Sw. ex Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 493. 1869; Trichosteleum microcarpum (Mitt.) Broth, in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1(3): 1119. 1908; non Rhaphidostegium microcarpum (Brid.) A. Jaeger, Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1876-77: 396. 1878 [= Sematophyllum adnatum (Michx.) E. Britton]. Rhaphidostegium pterocladium Besch., Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. VI, 3: 252. 1876; Trichosteleum pterocladium (Besch.) A. Jaeger, Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1876-77: 416. 1878. Rhaphidostegium tenuissimum Besch., J. Bot. (Morot) 16: 9. 1902. Discussion. Trichosteleum vincentinum is most easily confused with, and probably most closely related to, Trichosteleum sentosum, but it is distinguished by prominent papillae with diameters less than the width of the cell lumina, and denticulate, long-acuminate, usually twisted but not flexuose leaf apices. It also differs from T. sentosum in the longer perichaetial leaves and setae obviously roughened above. Acroporium longirostre may rarely have papillose leaf cells and key out here. It, though, has larger alar cells and a smooth seta. There was a problem with the name Trichosteleum microcarpum. Mitten first published it in 1869 but cited Swartz’s Leskea microcarpa, presumably a herbarium name, as the basis for the species. Of the four original specimens cited by Mitten, only three are in his herbarium, and only two of them conform to the present concept; the other is a Sematophyllum. I (Buck, 1983b) lectotypified the species with a Spruce collection and placed the name in synonymy with T vincentinum to ensure priority of the latter name.

  • Distribution

    Range. Panama (Darién), northern South America, Trinidad; Jamaica, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic), St. Kitts, Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent; growing on soil and old wood, usually in mesic forests, at 250-1000 m.

    Panama Central America| Peru South America| Ecuador South America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Jamaica South America| Saint Kitts and Nevis South America| Dominican Republic South America| Dominica South America| Martinique South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America|