Racopilaceae
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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
Racopilaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Plants slender to robust, in mostly flat, rather stiff mats; stems creeping, tomentose, irregularly to pinnately branched. Leaves mostly dimorphic, the lateral ones mostly spreading in 2 rows, ± asymmetric, oblong to oblong-ovate, obtuse to acuminate; margins serrulate to serrate, plane, sometimes limbate by elongate, hyaline cells; costa single, subpercurrent to long-excurrent; cells rounded to hexagonal, smooth to mammillose-unipapillose, sometimes differentiated toward the insertion. Dorsal leaves usually smaller than lateral ones, remote, in 2 rows, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; costa excurrent. Asexual reproduction none or by deciduous leaves. Setae elongate, smooth; capsules erect to horizontal, cylindrical, furrowed throughout or only below the mouth; peristome double, exostome teeth papillose or cross-striate; endostome with basal membrane low to high, segments narrow to broad, cilia in groups of 3 or none. Calyptrae cucullate or mitrate, hairy. The family has two genera, Racopilum of widespread occurrence, the other, Powellia Mitten, of Australia, Melanesia and Oceania.