Tropicos | Name - !Trichostomum brachydontium Bruch

!Trichostomum brachydontium Bruch

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 2/16/2011)

Acceptance : Accepted

Project data (Last Modified On 2/16/2011)

Discussion:

Trichostomum brachydontium is a small to medium-sized species with broad, ligulate, stoutly mucronate leaves that are erect-incurved when dry, and have a weakly developed border of thin-walled, hyaline cells at base. Although its leaf margins are mostly plane, the upper margins can be erect to weakly incurved for short lengths. Trichostomum crispulum, T. hondurensis, and T. tenuirostre differ from T. brachydontium in having longer, narrower, lanceolate leaves. Trichostomum crispulum also differs in having more erect, incurved upper leaf margins and a more or less cucullate apex, while T. hondurensis has a longer leaf mucro and linear, thick-walled to porose basal cells. The separation of the extremely variable T. tenuirostre from T. brachydontium is a problem. Usually T. tenuirostre differs from T. brachydontium in having longer, narrower leaves that are not abruptly contracted to a stout mucro. The absence of a stem central strand in T. tenuirostre (Saito 1975, Magill 1981, Noguchi 1988, Eddy 1990) is a feature that separates the two species in some areas of the world, but in North America and Central America material of T. tenuirostre has a stem central strand. Trichostomum brachydontium and T. sinalonensis have similar shaped leaves, but the presence of short, quadrate, firm-walled basal cells in the latter separates the two.

Although T. brachydontium and the northern South American T. duidense Bartr. are sometimes treated as synonyms (Sollman 1984), Zander (1993) considered them distinct enough to be treated in different subgenera. Trichostomum duidense differs from T. brachydontium in having shortly mucronate leaves in which the mucro is not sharply demarcated and the dorsal surface of the costa is densely papillose.

Illustrations: Bartram (1949, Fig. 43 H–J); Noguchi (1988, Fig. 110 A); Norris and Koponen (1989, Fig. 3 l–n); Sharp et al. (1994, Fig. 172); Churchill and Linares (1995, Fig. 162 g–k). Figure 81.

Habitat: Moist shaded banks and margins of pools, on rocks near waterfall, in alpine meadows; 950–3700 m.

Distribution in Central America: GUATEMALA. Alta Verapaz: Croat 41504 (MO); Huehuetenango: Standley 81181 (F); Jalapa: Standley 76448 (F); Quezaltenango: Sharp 2325 (MO); Sacatepéquez: Standley 58985a (F); Zacapa: Steyermark 42205 (F, NY). HONDURAS. Choluteca: Allen 17794 (MO, TEFH); Comayagua: Allen 11734 (MO, TEFH); El Paraíso: Standley et al. 594 (F).

World Range: South-Central U.S.A.; Mexico; Central America; Caribbean, Northern, Western, and Southern South America, Brazil; Northern, Middle, East, Southwestern, and Southeastern Europe; Caucasus, China, Japan, Western Asia, Arabian Peninsula; Macaronesia, Northern Africa, West, Northeast, West-Central, East, and South Tropical Africa, Southern Africa, Western Indian Ocean; Indian Subcontinent, Indo-China, Malesia; Australia, New Zealand.