Cratoneuron

• Authority

  Sharp, Aaron J., et al. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. Part Two: Orthotrichales to Polytrichales. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 69 (2)

• Family

  Amblystegiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Cratoneuron

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants medium-sized to fairly robust in dense, often deep cushions, green or yellow to brown, usually somewhat radiculose. Stems creeping or, more typically, crowded and erect or ascending, regularly or irregularly pinnate; paraphyllia rather abundant or sometimes very few. Leaves striate or plicate, sometimes erect or erect-spreading but mostly falcate-secund, slenderly acuminate from a broadly ovate or ovate-lanceolate base, sometimes decurrent; margins plane or slightly recurved near the insertion, serrulate all around or only at base; costa single, sometimes very strong, disappearing in the subula to percurrent; cells ± incrassate, smooth or rarely papillose at back because of thickened upper angles, short and oblong or oblong-rhomboidal to rather long and linear, somewhat larger and inflated in a few rows across the insertion or abmptly inflated and thin- or thick-walled in well-developed, concave alar groups. Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves erect, long lance-acuminate.

• Discussion

  The genus is somewhat like Drepanocladus in having a tendency for falcate leaves and differentiated alar cells. The most distinctive character, very unusual in this and most other hypnoid families, is the presence of paraphyllia. They can be quite abundant, but in the sole representative in Mexico they are often few and difficult to find.