Entodontopsis contorte-operculata (Müll.Hal.) Broth.

  • Authority

    Ireland, Robert R. & Buck, William R. 1994. Stereophyllaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 65: 1-49. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Stereophyllaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Entodontopsis contorte-operculata (Müll.Hal.) Broth.

  • Type

    Type. Costa Rica, Feb-Apr 1847, Oersted s.n. (isotype, FH).

  • Synonyms

    Hypnum contorte-operculatum Müll.Hal., Stereophyllum contorte-operculatum (Müll.Hal.) Mitt., Entodontopsis rhabdodonta Cardot, Stereophyllum rhabdodonta (Cardot) Grout

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants yellowish green to dark-green, in loose, glossy mats. Stems complanate-foliate, to 1.5 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, simple or irregularly and sparingly branched; axillary hairs with a single short brown basal cell and 3-4 elongate hyaline apical cells. Leaves lax, close to distant, erect-spreading, flat, 1-2 mm long, 0.4-0.7 mm wide, oblong to ovate-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, sometimes abruptly so; margins plane, entire or serrulate to serrate in upper half; costa extending 1/2-2/3 length of leaf; cells smooth, or rarely minutely prorulose at upper ends on dorsal surface near leaf apex; median cells 47-104 µm long, 5-12 pm wide; alar cells quadrate to short-rectangular, sometimes oblate, 19-33 µm long, 12-19 µm wide. Autoicous. Setae orange to reddish brown, 0.8-1.7 cm long; capsules orange to reddish brown, erect, 1-3 mm long, cylindric, not contracted below mouth when dry; opercula straight or obliquely short-rostrate, 0.4-0.6 mm long. Spores 9-16 µm in diam.

  • Discussion

    This is one of three Latin American species of Entodontopsis with erect capsules. The plants are distinguished by the somewhat distant, sometimes abruptly acuminate leaves with entire or minutely serrulate margins at the apices, and the erect, cylindric capsules. It is very similar to E. mexicana and for distinctions see that species.

    An isotype of E. contorte-operculata, collected by Oersted in Costa Rica, was found in the Farlow Herbarium (FH) after earlier attempts to locate the type at Berlin (B) and the British Museum (BM) failed. The plants are similar in all important morphological features to another species described in 1910 from Mexico, E. rhabdodonta, which is considered here a new synonym.

  • Distribution

    Rare; known only from Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica (Fig. 13). Although reported from Surinam by Zielman and Florschütz-de Waard (Florschiütz-de Waard, 1986), the record is almost surely based on a misdetermination. On rotten wood or rock at 610-950 m altitude.

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