Lindbergia brachyptera (Mitt.) Kindb.

  • 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

    Leskeaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Lindbergia brachyptera (Mitt.) Kindb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants in rigid, flat, loose mats, dark-green, becoming yellowish to brownish. Stems irregularly branched. Very small brood branches in dense axillary clusters common. Leaves crowded and imbricate when dry (or the acumina often spreading to squarrose), wide-spreading to squarrose when moist, 0.9-1.4 mm long, concave, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, gradually to abruptly narrowed to a short acumen (which is often pale or yellowish and almost a hair point); margins entire or faintly serrulate above; costa 1/2-2/3 the leaf length; cells short and thick-walled, rounded to rhombic, 8-10 µm wide and 1-2:1, bluntly unipapillose over the lumina on both surfaces (the papillae occasionally bluntly and minutely 2-3-forked), rounded and often broader than long in many oblique rows from the basal margins almost to the costa, oblong and smooth at the apex. Setae 6-8 mm long, yellow-brown; capsules 1-1.5 mm long, smooth, yellow-brown; opercula convex-conic; stomata in the neck; exostome teeth yellow, densely papillose; endostome yellowish. Spores 18-23 µm, very minutely roughened.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 641

    L. brachyptera (Mitt.) Kindb., Sp. Eur. N. Amer. Bryin. 1: 13. 1896.

    Pterogonium brachypterum Mitt., J. Linn. Soc, Bot. 8: 37. 1864.

    Leskea austinii Sull., Icones Muse. Suppl. 8. 1874.

    Lindbergia brachyptera has leaves squarrose when moist, and the leaf cells are distinctly papillose. T h e axillary clusters of brood branches were not seen in the Mexican specimen, and the leaves were rather shorter (only about 0.7 mm long) and shortly acuminate, scarcely hair-pointed.

  • Distribution

    On tree trunks; Zacatecas (Cerro del Moro, municipio de Tlaltenango, Cardenas 837a, MEXU).—Mexico; widespread in eastern North America and westward to South Dakota, Colorado, western Texas, and Arizona; Caucasus and Himalayan Mountains; reported from southern Siberia and Japan.

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