Meteoriaceae
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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
Meteoriaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Plants slender to robust, in dull or less often lustrous, soft to stiff, green to golden, frequently black-tinged, typically pendent colonies, usually epiphytic but sometimes on rocks or (after falling?) on soil or humus; stems elongate, at least initially creeping along substrate, but then becoming ascendant to pendent, primary and secondary stems not differentiated, creeping portion often less branched than pendent portion but leaves scarcely different between the two, irregularly to densely pinnately branched, the branches mostly short, in cross-section with a sclerodermis. Stem and branch leaves mostly not differentiated except in size, inserted in either a straight line or with a U-shaped insertion, appressed to spreading, typically little altered when moist, lanceolate to ovate, mostly acuminate, sometimes hairpointed, often concave, sometimes plicate, often with a ± clasping base and either cordate or ± auriculate; margins mostly serrulate almost throughout, plane to incurved or recurved, rarely limbate; costa single or less often short and double to absent; cells short to linear, smooth or more often papillose on both surfaces, either with a single papilla over the lumina or pluripapillose over the lumina or the walls or both, sometimes seriately arranged, thin- to thick-walled; alar cells scarcely differentiated or differentiated only in small areas, rarely numerous. Asexual propagula when present most often of flagellate branches, less often of caducous leaves, specialized gemmae unknown. Dioicous. Setae short to elongate, smooth or more typically roughened; capsules immersed to long-exserted, erect or almost so, globose to cylindric; peristome double, exostome teeth on the front surface either densely cross-striolate or papillose; endostome with a very low to high basal membrane, segments mostly well developed, rarely rudimentary, keeled, perforate, cilia mostly none, rarely present. Calyptrae mitrate or cucullate, naked or hairy, smooth or roughened. The Meteoriaceae are a poorly defined group of tropical mosses best characterized by tendencies rather than by absolutes: pendent habits, single costae, papillose laminal cells, weak alar development, rough setae, erect capsules, hairy calyptrae.