Aptychella proligera (Broth.) Herzog

  • 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

    Sematophyllaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Aptychella proligera (Broth.) Herzog

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants slender, yellow-green to golden-yellow or reddishgolden. Brood filaments filiform, in conspicuous red-brown clusters at tips of stems and branches or, less commonly, in upper leaf axils. Leaves erect or spreading, often wide-spaced, ca. 1.5 mm long, varying from narrowly lanceolate to oblongovate, rather abmptly to gradually acuminate; margins ± recurved below, sermlate near the apex; costa restricted to the lower 1/4 ofthe leaf, 1 fork sometimes longer than the other; upper cells linear-rhomboidal, thick-walled; alar cells quadrate, thick-walled, brownish (not inflated). Sporophytes unknown.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 729

    A. proligera (Broth.) Herz., Biblioth. Bot. 87: 157. 1916.

    Rhaphidostegium proligerum Broth, in E. & P., Nat. Pfl. 1(3): 1115. 1908.

    Clastobryum americanum Card., Rev. Bryol. 37: 9. 1910.

    Aptychella americana (Card.) Broth, in E. & P., Nat. Pfl. ed. 2, 11: 406. 1925.

    The species is easily recognized by conspicuous clusters of brown, filiform brood bodies at stem and branch tips or, uncommonly, in less crowded clusters in upper leaf axils. The plants are remarkably variable in aspect. The stems and branches may be relatively short and stout, with broad leaves having noticeably recurved margins, but quite commonly they proliferate an abundance of long, slender, flexuose-tapercd branches with narrow leaves with erect margins. Tixicr (1977) included both forms in a single species, as shown by his illustrations taken from three different collections. Those forms are also shown in the accompanying iUustrations of Mexican plants.

  • Distribution

    On trunks and branches of trees or shrubs, in cloud forests at 1700-3000 m alt.; Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz.—Mexico; Costa Rica and Panama; Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru; Cuba, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

    Mexico North America| Costa Rica South America| Panama Central America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Brazil South America| Ecuador South America| Bolivia South America| Peru South America| Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Dominican Republic South America|