Sematophyllum squarrosum W.R.Buck
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Authority
Buck, William R. 2003. Guide to the plants of central french Guiana. Part 3. Mosses. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-167.
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Family
Sematophyllaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants small, in dull, dark green, small mats; stems to ca. 1.5 cm long, irregularly branched, the branches prostrate to ascending, short, ca. 0.3-0.5 cm long, straight. Leaves mostly squarrose to squarrose-recurved, ovate to oblong-ovate, gradually to abruptly short-acuminate, not or scarcely concave, 0.57-0.89 x 0.34-0.43 mm; margins subentire, plane above, typically strongly recurved in lower half; costa short and double or absent; cells long- rhomboidal, 25-35 x 4.5-6 µm, thick-walled, not or only weakly porose, becoming somewhat shorter in the apex, long-rhomboidal, 20-28 x 4-6 µm; alar cells enlarged but not conspicuously inflated, mostly colored across the insertion, sometimes the outermost cell on each angle hyaline, subquadrate to oblong, relatively small for the genus, not more than 1.5-3 times larger than the quadrate cells above them. Autoicous. Setae 0.5-1.0 cm long, straight; capsules erect to suberect, symmetric or subasymmetric, short-cylindric, 1-1.2 mm long, sometimes strongly constricted below the mouth when dry.
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Discussion
The small size of the plants with squarrose leaves and recurved basal leaf margins are distinctive. The holotype was collected from the crown of a downed tree while the paratype was collected on a twig within two meters of the ground.
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Distribution
In non-flooded moist forests, rare, 200-700 m, on tree trunks and branches.
French Guiana South America|