Tropicos | Name - !Weissia condensa (Voit) Lindb.

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!Weissia condensa (Voit) Lindb.

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

Acceptance : Accepted

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

Discussion:

Weissia condensa is sometimes placed in the genus Hymenostomum which has eperistomate capsules that at maturity have an evanescent membrane over the capsule mouth. The only Central American collection of W. condensa with sporophytes has eperistomate capsules, but does not have a membrane over the capsule mouth. Weissia controversa is gametophytically similar to W. condensa, it differs in having lanceolate rather than ovate-lanceolate leaves and more tightly involute leaf margins. Both species are autoicous, and although W. controversa usually has 16, short, narrowly triangular peristome teeth, the species at times has the peristome rudimentary or absent.

Illustrations: Grout (1938, Pl. 78 B); Stoneburner (1985, Figs. 20 & 21); Sharp et al. 1994 (Fig. 160). Figure 93.

Habitat: On soil, road bank and under shrubs; 640–1130 m.

Distribution in Central America: HONDURAS. Comayagua: Crosby 2781 (DUKE, MO, NY, TEFH). COSTA RICA. Heredia: Grayum 9592 (CR, MO).

World Range: Southwestern and South-Central U.S.A.; Mexico; Central America; Western South America, Brazil; Northern, Southwestern, Middle, East, and Southeastern Europe; Siberia, Caucasus, Middle Asia, Mongolia, Western Asia, Arabian Peninsula; Northern Africa.

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Weissia condensa (Voit ex Sturm) Lindb., Öfvers. Förh. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. 21: 230. 1864. Gymnostomum condensum Voit ex Sturm., Deutsch. Fl., Abt. II, Cryptog. 3(11): unnumbered fig. 1810 [1811].

Gymnostomum tortile Schwaegr. ex Schrad., Neues J. Bot. 4: 17. 1810. Hymenstomum tortile (Schwaegr. ex Schrad.) Bruch & Schimp. in B.S.G., Bryol. Eur. Fasc. 33–36: 56. 1846. Weissia tortilis (Schwaegr. ex Schrad.) C. Müll., Syn. Musc. Frond. 1: 661. 1849, hom. illeg., non Sprengel, 1827. Mollia tortilis (Schwaegr. ex Schrad.) Braithw., Brit. Moss Fl. 1: 235. 1885. Weissia euteiches Zander, Monogr. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 11: 195. 1985, nom. nov. Protologue: Germany. Regensburg, Duval; Franken, De La Vigne; Würzburg, Voit.

Plants small, yellow-green above, brown below, in dense mats or tufts, 2–3 mm high. Stems reddish yellow, irregularly branched, hyalodermis and central strand present;; rhizoids sparse red, smooth to roughened. Leaves 1.3–1.8 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, weakly clasping at base, erect at base, incurved to somewhat spirally contorted above when dry, erect-flexuose to erect-spreading when wet; apices acute, mucronate; lamina unistratose, not fragile; margins entire, strongly involute above the base to the apex; costa excurrent, 40–50 μm at base, ventral surface cells quadrate, guide cells and two stereid bands well-developed, ventral surface layer enlarged, papillose, green; upper cells rounded to quadrate, 7–9 μm long, thick-walled, bulging at the surface, with 4–6 bifid papillae on both surfaces, basal cells narrowly rectangular, thick- or thin-walled, yellow or hyaline, smooth, 14–46 x 8–12 μm, outer basal cells hyaline, thin-walled, not noticeably running up the margins in a v-shaped pattern. Autoicous. Perichaetial leaves somewhat larger and longer than vegetative leaves, otherwise not strongly differentiated. Setae smooth, 2.5–3 mm long, yellow. Capsules ovoid, erect, 0.8–1.0 mm long, smooth to lightly furrowed when dry; stomata in neck; opercula oblique-rostrate, 0.5 mm long; annuli of several rows of cells persistent cells; peristome none. Spores 14–20, papillose. Calyptrae yellow, smooth, 1.2 mm long.