Sematophyllaceae
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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
Sematophyllaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Plants small to robust, in often lustrous, soft to stiff, green to yellowish brown but typically golden-green, sometimes reddish, lax or dense mats; stems creeping or rarely erect, irregularly branched or rarely ± regularly pinnate, sometimes complanate-foliate, in cross-section with a sclerodermis. Stem and branch leaves mostly similar, occasionally differentiated, often subcomplanate, sometimes homomallous to falcate- secund, narrowly lanceolate to ovate to suborbicular, symmetric, obtuse to acuminate, often concave, not or scarcely decurrent; margins entire to serrate, plane, recurved or reflexed, rarely limbate; costa short and double or absent; cells rhomboidal to linear-flexuose, typically long- hexagonal, smooth or papillose, seldom prorulose, mostly firm-walled; alar cells mostly enlarged, usually inflated, colored, occasionally quadrate and not inflated. Asexual propagula sometimes present, of flagellate branches or axillary gemmae. Autoicous or dioicous, rarely synoicous. Setae elongate, smooth or roughened above or rarely throughout, usually reddish; capsules erect to pendent, mostly asymmetric, arcuate or straight, ovoid to cylindric, smooth or rarely with a roughened neck, often constricted below the mouth when dry and empty; peristome typically double, the endostome rarely lacking, exostome teeth on the front surface with a zig-zag median line or a median furrow, cross-striolate below, coarsely papillose above, sometimes reduced and papillose or smooth throughout; endostome mostly with a high basal membrane, segments broad, keeled, usually perforate, about as long as the teeth, cilia none or in groups of 1-2(3), occasionally endostome reduced to a low basal membrane and narrow segments. Calyptrae cucullate or rarely mitrate, naked or rarely sparsely hairy, usually smooth, sometimes scabrous above. The Sematophyllaceae are a large and heterogeneous family. Typically a plant in the family may be expected to be golden-green and have leaves with enlarged, inflated and colored alar cells, collenchymatous exothecial cells, and obliquely long-rostrate opercula. However, none of these characters is constant and genera like Pterogonidium have none of them.