木藓科   mu xian ke

by Wu Peng-cheng

 

 

Plants usually robust, sometimes medium-sized, rarely small, yellowish green or dark green, brownish green when old, slightly or not glossy, in loose tufts. Primary stems creeping, leaves deciduous, with reddish brown rhizoids; secondary stems dendroid, suberect or ascending, 1–2-pinnately branched above, or multiply branched; central strand scarcely to well differentiated. Stipe leaves scale-like, on the base of secondary stems; secondary stem and mature branch leaves similar, ovate or oblong-ovate, rarely broadly lingulate, mostly strongly concave, rarely plane, sometimes irregularly undulate, obtusely acute or acuminate at the apex; margins entire below, grossly serrate or serrulate above; costae single, usually thick, vanishing in leaf apex, sometimes with spines at the back; leaf cells hexagonal, oblong, or rhomboidal, evenly thick-walled, smooth; basal cells narrowly rectangular or oblong-rhomboidal; alar cells not clearly differentiated. Dioicous. Setae elongate, slender, smooth; capsules oblong-ovoid to subcylindrical; peristome teeth double; exostome teeth lanceolate; endostome segments linear-lanceolate, as long as the teeth; basal membrane high; cilia well developed, rudimentary, or absent. Calyptrae cucullate, not hairy. Spores spherical, finely papillose.

1. Plants somewhat glossy; secondary stems dendroid, loosely or densely branched; central strand scarcely differentiated; leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, strongly concave, grossly dentate at the apex; cilia usually well developed, 2–3.............................................................................................................................. 4. Thamnobryum

1. Plants rarely glossy; secondary stems pinnately branched; central strand well differentiated or absent; leaves ovate-lingulate, ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, slightly concave, serrulate, rarely grossly serrate; cilia rudimentary or absent............................................................................................................................................... 2

2. The apices of stems and branches arcuate; pseudoparaphyllia absent; cilia rudimentary..... 1. Curvicladium

2. The apices of stems and branches not arcuate; pseudoparaphyllia present; cilia absent................................ 3

3. Leaves often symmetric to slightly asymmetric, occasionally rather asymmetric, upper stem leaves usually not undulate; costae often strong, long, rarely weak and short; stipe leaves squarrose to spreading; capsules not varnished when old......................................................................................................................... 2. Pinnatella

3. Leaves distinctly asymmetric, upper stem leaves often undulate; costae weak and short; stipe leaves spreading; capsules strongly lustrous and varnished when old......................................................... 3. Shevockia