Zygodon pichinchensis (T.Taylor) Mitt.

  • 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

    Orthotrichaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Zygodon pichinchensis (T.Taylor) Mitt.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants up to 7 cm high, in loose, ± dull, dark red-brown, tomentose mats, yellow- to olive-green above. Stems usually simple, in section showing cells smaller and thicker-walled toward the surface. Brood bodies not seen. Leaves loosely erect and often somewhat twisted above, wide-spreading and recurved below when dry, wide-spreading to squarrose-recurved when moist, 1.3-1.8 mm long, sharply keeled with laminae ± broadly reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, sharply acute to broadly acuminate, broadly decurrent; margins plane, spinose because of conic papillae often as much as 25 µm high; costa ending below the apex, spinose-papillose at back and not covered by quadrate cells; upper cells 9-13 µm, irregularly rounded, flat or slightly bulging, with 1(2) large, conic, usually unbranched papillae that become spinelike at margins and costa; basal cells oblong to quadrate, longer toward the costa, pale-yellow, spinose at the margins and grading inward to papillose or nearly smooth. Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves lance-acuminate, up to 2.5 mm long; margins serrulate above; long, nodose, pellucid, smooth basal cells extending 2/3 up the leaves. Setae 10-11 mm long; capsules 1.6-1.8 mm long, narrowly ovoid-cylindric, moderately 8-ribbed above a short neck; operculum not seen; exothecial cells not or slightly differentiated in bands; stomata infrequent, in the neck; exostome none; endostome segments 8, reduced to 3-5 cells high, 2 cells wide at base, rising from a low, hyaline membrane. Spores 15-20 µm, finely papillose. Calyptrae smooth. (Sporophytes not seen in Mexican material.)

  • Discussion

    Fig. 450

    Z. pichinchensis (Tayl.) Mitt, Kew J. Bot. 3: 356. 1851.

    Didymodon pichinchensis Tayl., London J. Bot. 7: 280. 1848.

  • Distribution

    In rock crevices in alpine zones, at the summits of Nevado de Toluca, Ixtaccfhuatl, and Cofre de Perote; also reported from the Nevado de Colima and Pico de Orizaba by Delgadillo (1987b). Mexico; Andes of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Patagonia.

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