Stereophyllaceae
-
Authority
Buck, William R. 2003. Guide to the plants of central french Guiana. Part 3. Mosses. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-167.
-
Family
Stereophyllaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Genus Description - Plants medium-sized to moderately robust, in often lustrous, green to golden, thin to dense, flat mats; stems creeping, simple or sparingly and irregularly branched, terete- or complanate-foliate; in cross-section rarely with a hyalodermis. Stem and branch leaves similar, crowded or sometimes lax, usually imbricate when dry, erect to wide-spreading when moist, lanceolate to ovate, obtuse to long-acuminate, symmetric or rarely asymmetric, flat to somewhat concave, not plicate, not decurrent; margins usually serrulate above, ± entire below, mostly plane; costa mostly single, ending 1/3-3/4 the leaf length, rarely weaker or absent in some leaves, occasionally projecting as a spine or prickle at apex, cells rhomboidal to linear, smooth or rarely unipapillose or prorulose at upper ends at back, thin- to thick-walled; alar cells differentiated in mostly large areas, oblate or quadrate to rectangular, often unequally distributed on either side of the costa but always covering the adaxial surface of the costa, collenchymatous. Asexual propagula none. Usually autoicous, sometimes dioicous. Setae elongate, smooth, straight; capsules erect to cemuous, straight to arcuate, ovoid to cylindric; peristome double, exostome teeth on the front surface with a zig-zag median line, cross- striolate or with horizontally arranged papillae below, papillose above; endostome with a low to high basal membrane, segments keeled, mostly perforate, shorter than or almost as long as the teeth, cilia present or absent. Calyptrae cucullate, naked, smooth. The family is characterized by numerous alar cells that are unequally distributed on either side of the costa and extend across the adaxial surface of it. The alar cells are typically collenchymatous. The sporophytes are hypnoid, with a frequent tendency toward erect capsules and correlated penstome reductions. The family was recently monographed by Ireland and Buck (1994) for the neotropics.