Tropicos | Name - !Weissia breutelii Müll. Hal.

Cent. Amer. Moss > Pottiaceae > Weissia > Weissia breutelii

Choose Project down

English

!Weissia breutelii Müll. Hal.

Search in Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle

Search in Type Specimen Register of the U.S. National Herbarium

Search in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical Garden

African Plants, Senckenberg Photo Gallery

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

Acceptance : Accepted

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

Discussion:

Weissia breutelii C. Müll. is a mostly Caribbean species (Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, St. Jan. St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola, Anagada, and St. Eustatius, Britton 1915a, Reese 1991) also present in Brazil (Yano 1996). The species is known in Central America only from the type of W. senocarpa. Weissia breutelii has the aspect, size, and leaf shape of W. controversa, but it differs from all Central American species of Weissia in having smooth dorsal leaf cells. The ornamentation on the ventral surface of the leaf cells is variable in W. breutelii. In some collections examined from St. John, Virgin Islands (Allen 2630, MO) the ventral cells are bulging-mammillose in the same manner as those of Hyophila, while in others (Allen 4246, MO) they are pluripapillose. The ventral leaf cells in the Central American plants are bulging-mammillose.

Britton (1915a) attributed the type of Weissia breutelii to the Virgin Island of St. John [St. Jan] rather than St. Thomas.

Illustrations: Zander (1993, Pl. 60 1–5). Figure 92.

Distribution in Central America: COSTA RICA. Oersted (NY).

World Range: Central America; Caribbean, Brazil.

Export To PDF

Export To Word

Weissia breutelii C. Müll., Syn. Musc. Frond. 1: 664. 1849.

Hymenostomum breutelii (C. Müll.) Kindb., Enum. Bryin. Exot. 91. 1889. Protologue: Virgin Islands. Ex insula antillarum St. Thomas dicta reculit Breutel.

Weissia senocarpa C. Müll., Syn. Musc. Frond. 2: 633. 1851. Gymnostomum senocarpum (C. Müll.) Jaeg., Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1869–70: 280. 1870. Hymenostomum senocarpum (C. Müll.) Par., Index Bryol. 597. 1895. Protologue: Costa Rica. America centralis, Costa Rica, reg. montosa, inter 5000–8000 ped. elevationis, mens. Martii 1848, legit A. S. Oersted. (NY).

Plants small, dark-green to yellow-green above, brown below, in dense mats or tufts, 2.5–5 mm high. Stems red, sparsely and irregularly branched, hyalodermis weakly developed, central strand well-developed; rhizoids sparse red, smooth to roughened. Leaves 1.2–2.0 mm long, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, ovate to oblong and weakly clasping at base, erect at base, crisped and spirally contorted above when dry, erect-flexuose to erect-spreading when wet; apices acuminate, mucronate; lamina unistratose, firm or occasionally fragile; margins entire, strongly involute above the base to the apex; costa stoutly excurrent, broad at base (50–60 μm), cells on ventral surface quadrate, guide cells and two stereid bands well-developed, ventral surface layer enlarged, bulging-mammillose or papillose; upper cells rounded to quadrate, 6–11 μm long, thick-walled, dorsal surface, plane to weakly bulging, smooth, ventral surface bulging-mammillose or pluripapillose with 4–6 bifid papillae, basal cells narrowly rectangular, thick- or thin-walled, yellow or hyaline, smooth, 20–50 x 6–10 μm, outer basal cells hyaline, thin-walled, not noticeably running up the margins in a v-shaped pattern. Autoicous (?). Intact sporophytes not seen in Central America. Setae long, straight, slender, yellow. Capsules symmetric, erect or somewhat inclined, ovate to ellipsoid; opercula long-rostrate; annuli lacking; peristome lacking, narrow mouth of capsule usually covered by fugacious membrane developed from columella. Calyptra cucullate, reaching middle of capsule (Crum & Steere 1957).