Lepyrodon tomentosus (Hook.) 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

    Lepyrodontaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Lepyrodon tomentosus (Hook.) Mitt.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants moderately robust, 3-5 cm high. Stems forked, commonly bearing in the leaf axils slender, flexuose, flagelliform branches with reduced leaves. Leaves strongly plicate, 5-6 mm long, oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, gradually piliform-subulate; margins plane, serrate above; costa single; cells linear, thick-walled and conspicuously pitted, those at base laxer and thinner-walled, the alar cells small and irregularly hexagonal in small groups. Setae 10-12 mm long; capsules about 2.5 mm long; operculum ca. 2 mm long.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 523a, b

    L. tomentosus (Hook.) Mitt., J. Linn. Soc, Bot. 12: 421. 1869.

    Leucodon tomentosus Hook., Musci Exot. 1: pl. 37. 1818.

    The plants are shiny yellow or yellow-green. They grow erect in dense, tomentose sods. The narrow leaves arc erect, deeply plicate, and gradually narrowed to a piliform subula. The leaf cells are linear, very thick-walled, and strongly pitted. The resemblance to Lepyrodontopsis (assigned by Brotherus, 1924-1925, to the Brachytheciaceae but better placed in the Lepyrodontopsidaceae) is striking, but the single costa and single peristome (consisting of endostome) are significant differences.

    An early record by Müller (1846) is quite uninformative: "von Merida; bisher in Mexico und zuerst von Hrn. v. Humboldt in der Chinawaldern von Loxa gesammelt."

  • Distribution

    On vertical surfaces of a log, in partial shade, 1900 m alt.; Tamaulipas (Rancho del Cielo, Sharp 5640, MICH), Veracruz (Delgadillo, 1984b).—Mexico; Costa Rica and Panama; Haiti; northern South America.

    Mexico North America| Costa Rica South America| Panama Central America| Haiti South America| Ecuador South America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America|