Leucomiaceae
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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
Leucomiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Plants slender to robust, in mostly pale green, sometimes silvery or golden, often extensive, flat mats; stems creeping to scrambling, sometimes floating, fragile, irregularly branched to subpinnate, complanate-foliate, in cross-section with all cells thin-walled and similar. Leaves sometimes slightly contorted when dry, often ± falcate, lateral and dorsal leaves somewhat differentiated, lanceolate to ovate, ± symmetric; margins entire to serrate, mostly plane, elimbate; costa none or very short and double; cells long-rhomboidal to linear, lax, smooth, thin-walled, not porose; alar cells not differentiated. Asexual propagula none. Autoicous, synoicous, or dioicous. Setae elongate, smooth throughout or slightly roughened at apex; capsules inclined to horizontal, cylindric, mostly symmetric, sometimes with a well defined neck; peristome double, exostome teeth on the front surface typically with a median furrow, cross-striolate below, coarsely papillose above; endostome with a fairly high basal membrane, segments keeled, perforate, with baffle-like crosswalls, cilia 1-3, ± nodose. Calyptrae cucullate, naked or sparsely hairy, smooth or roughened above The Leucomiaceae are a small family of three genera of tropical mosses, mostly of the New World. They are characterized by plants with fragile stems without internal differentiation, and leaves with elongate, lax cells and no costa, border, or alar differentiation. The exostome teeth are furrowed, the endostome is ciliate, and the calyptrae are cucullate.