Orthotrichaceae
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Authority
Buck, William R. 2003. Guide to the plants of central french Guiana. Part 3. Mosses. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-167.
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Family
Orthotrichaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Plants small to robust, in tufts, cushions, or mats; stems simple and erect or creeping with numerous erect-ascending branches. Leaves often altered when dry, variously contorted to twisted, linear- to ovate-lanceolate to lingulate, acute or obtuse or less often acuminate; margins usually serrulate to serrate above, mostly entire below, plane to revolute, rarely incurved, elimbate or limbate below; costa single, subpercurrent to excurrent; cells mostly rounded-hexagonal, rarely rectangular to linear, commonly papillose or mammillose, less commonly smooth; basal cells often differentiated, smooth, papillose or tuberculate. Asexual reproduction uncommon, sometimes of axillary propagula. Perichaetia usually terminal on stems or branches, sometimes lateral; leaves sometimes differentiated. Setae short to elongate; capsules immersed, emergent or exserted, erect and symmetric, ovoid to cylindric, sometimes 8- or 16-ribbed; peristome none, single or double, often rudimentary; exostome teeth 16 but often united in pairs or fused into a membrane, papillose or striate on outer surface; endostome usually with a very low basal membrane and narrow segments, cilia none. Calyptrae usually covering most of the capsule, mostly mitrate, often plicate, naked or hairy.
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Discussion
The Orthotrichaceae include a large amount of morphological variation. In the strict sense the family includes erect plants with mostly simple stems, with perichaetia terminating the stems. All members of our flora are in the Macromitrioideae [Syn.: Macromitriaceae S. Churchill] in which the primary stems are creeping with numerous erect branches. The perichaetia terminate the branches.