Vesicularia

• Authority

  Buck, William R. 2003. Guide to the plants of central french Guiana. Part 3. Mosses. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-167.

• Family

  Hypnaceae

• Scientific Name

  Vesicularia

• Description

  Genus Description - Plants mostly medium- sized, in somewhat lustrous, flaccid to soft, dark to pale green to golden, often extensive, thin mats; stems creeping, irregularly but freely branched to regularly pinnate, the branches mostly simple, often straight when dry, somewhat curved when moist, in cross- section with a sclerodermis. Stem and branch leaves often differentiated, crowded to lax, often controrted when dry, sometimes falcate-secund, stem leaves broadly inserted, the lateral and ventral ones similar, the dorsal ones somewhat shorter pointed and with laxer areolation, ovate- lanceolate to broadly ovate, acute to acuminate; margins entire to serrate, plan; costa short and double or almost absent; cells hexagonal to sublinera, broad, smooth, mostly thin walled, becoming shorter and rectangular toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated. Branch leaves often with differentiated ventral leaves, dorsal and lateral leaves lanceolate to ovate, acute to acuminate, sometimes flaccid; margins sometimes obscurely bordered, entire to serrate, plane; costa short and double or almost absent; cells hexagonal to long-hexagonal, smooth, thin- to firm-walled, becoming shorter and rectangular toward the insertion; alar cells not differentiated; ventral leaves mostly lanceolate, short- to long-acuminate; margins serrulate, plane; costa often seemingly lacking; cells longer than in lateral and dorsal leaves. Asexual propagula not seen. Autoicous or less often synoicous. Setae elongate, slender, smooth, reddish, flexuose, curved just below the urn; capsules horizontal to pendent, short, ovoid to short-cylindric, ± symmetric, some¬times constricted below the mouth when dry; peristome double, exostome teeth on the front surface cross-striolate below, coarsely papillose above; endostome with a high basal membrane, segments broad, keeled, narrowly perforate, about as long as the teeth, cilia in groups of 1-3. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth.

• Discussion

  Vesicularia is characterized by dorsal and ventral branch leaves often differentiated and all leaves with lax areolation. It might be confused with Leucomium that also has very lax areolation (and lives in humid habitats) but in that genus the ventral leaves are not dif¬ferentiated, pseudoparaphyllia are absent, and the outer stem cells are enlarged.