Entodon

• 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

  Entodontaceae

• Scientific Name

  Entodon

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants medium-sized to moderately robust, in green, yellow or golden-brown, generally shiny and usually flat creeping or occasionally ascending, irregularly to subpinnately branched, with relatively short, terete to flattened branches, in section showing a central strand, sometimes becoming hollow. Leaves mostly crowded, concave, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, obtuse to acuminate, usually acute, not decurrent; margins erect or somewhat reflexed near the base, rarely recurved above, entire or more commonly sermlate above; costa double, very short to ending near the midleaf; upper cells linear, commonly shorter at the extreme apex, straight to ± flexuose; alar cells quadrate to subquadrate (longer than wide), with conspicuous primordial utricles, in sizable triangular groups sometimes reaching the costa; cells between costa and alar cells mostly porose. Autoicous or rarely dioicous. Perigonia small and bud-hke along stems and branches; bracts broadly ovate, acute, concave, ecostate; margins incurved above, entire to sermlate; cells long-hexagonal above, shorter and broader below. Perichaetia common along stems and branches, leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate from a sheathing base, erect or reflexed; margins plane, sermlate above; cells linear above, rectangular below. Setae elongate; capsules erect and symmetric, cylindric; exothecial cells ± irregularly rectangular; columella commonly exserted; annulus present or none; operculum high-conic to obliquelyrostrate; exostome teeth inserted well below the mouth, linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, gradually tapered, narrowly bordered, with a ± straight median line and broad plates on the front surface, on the back surface with lamellae not or slightly projecting, usually perforate; endostome segments from a low basal membrane, linear, keeled, usually perforate, as long as or shorter than the teeth, rarely mdimentary and ± adhering to the teeth. Spores papillose. Calyptrae mostly naked.

• Discussion

  Entodon is a large, cosmopolitan genus with centers of distribution in northern South America and eastern Asia. It is characterized by ovate-lanceolate leaves with short, double costae, linear upper cells, and quadrate alar cells in sizable groups in the basal angles; the capsules are erect, and the double peristome is inserted well below the mouth. In the subgenus Entodon (species 3-8, below) the seta is usually yellow, an annulus is not differentiated, and the exostome teeth are usually obhquely to vertically striate. In the subgenus Erythropus (species 1-2, below) the seta is usually reddish, a well-developed annulus is usually present, and the exostome teeth are papillose, cross-striolate, or rarely smooth.