Tropicos | Name - !Weissia jamaicensis (Mitt.) Grout

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!Weissia jamaicensis (Mitt.) Grout

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

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

Discussion:

Weissia jamaicensis is the most common species of Weissia in Central America. It is distinguished from all other species by its long, linear-lanceolate leaves (mostly over 3 mm and to 4 mm long) that often have fragile and broken upper laminae and a tendency for the basal cells to run up the margins in a v-shaped pattern. The species, however, is extremely variable in this last feature. When many leaves from the same stem are examined some leaves are found to lack the condition, while others have it well-developed. Weissia jamaicensis has densely papillose upper leaf cells and of all Central American Weissia species it has the best development of enlarged, papillose, quadrate cells on the ventral surface of the costa. Although W. controversa and W. jamaicensis have somewhat similar shaped leaves, W. controversa differs in its smaller size and autoicous sexual condition. Weissia condensa is also a smaller plant than W. jamaicensis and it has broader, ovate-lanceolate leaves, an autoicous sexual condition, and eperistomate capsules. The leaf margins of Trichostomum brachydontium are sometimes involute at the apex which may cause this species to be thought of as a broader, more bluntly pointed form of W. jamaicensis. Weissia jamaicensis differs from Trichostomum brachydontium in having the leaf margins involute from the top of the leaf base to the apex.

Illustrations: Grout (1938, Pl. 82 A); Bartram (1949, Fig. 41 A–D); Crum and Anderson (1981, Fig. 134); Reese (1984, Fig. 26 G); Stoneburner (1985, Fig. 18); Zander (1993, Pl. 60 16–20); Sharp et al. (1994, Fig. 159); Churchill and Linares (1995, Fig. 163 e–h). Figure 95.

Habitat: On soil over road bank, bridge abutment, cement spillway, limestone outcrops, and rocks or boulders, often in full and direct sunlight; 10–1600 m.

Distribution in Central America: BELIZE. Cayo: Allen 18146 (BRH, MO); Toledo: Allen 18655 (BRH, MO). GUATEMALA. Alta Verapaz: Standley 89664 (F); Huehuetenango: Sharp 4833 (F). HONDURAS. Comayagua: Allen 13424 (MO, TEFH); Copán: Allen 17661 (MO, TEFH); Francisco Morazán: Allen 17788 (MO, TEFH). COSTA RICA. San José: Griffin & Morales C155 (F, MO, NY).

World Range: North-Central, Southwestern, South-Central and Southeastern U.S.A.; Mexico; Central America; Caribbean, Western and Northern South America, Brazil.

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Weissia jamaicensis (Mitt.) Grout, Moss Fl. N. Amer. 1: 157. 1938.

Tortula jamaicensis Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 147. 1869. Protologue: Jamaica. Ins. Jamaica, inter Marchantias, Wilds.

Trichostomum angustinerve Card., Rev. Bryol. 37: 122. 1910. Tuerckheimia angustinervis (Card.) Broth., Nat. Pflanzenfam. (ed. 2) 10: 259. 1924. Protologue: Mexico. Etat de Vera Cruz: prés d’Orizaba , associé à Timmiella subanomala (Pringle, 1895, n°8 in parte).

Plants medium-sized, dark-green to yellow-green above, brown below, in loose mats or tufts, to 10 mm high. Stems red, sparsely and irregularly branched, hyalodermis and central strand present; rhizoids sparse. Leaves 2.5–4 mm long, linear-lanceolate, ovate to oblong, weakly clasping to erect at base, crisped and spirally contorted above when dry, erect-flexuose to erect-spreading when wet; apices narrowly acute, apiculate; laminae unistratose, often irregularly fragile and eroded; margins entire, strongly involute above the base to the apex; costa stoutly excurrent, broad at base (50–90 μm), ventral surface cells quadrate, guide cells and two stereid bands well-developed, ventral surface layer enlarged, papillose, green; upper cells rounded to quadrate, 5–9 μm wide, thick-walled, bulging at the surface, 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, often running up the margins in a v-shaped pattern. Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves somewhat larger and longer than vegetative leaves, otherwise not strongly differentiated. Setae smooth, 7–12 mm long, yellow becoming red with age. Capsules cylindrical, erect, 1–2 mm long, smooth when dry; stomata in neck; opercula rostrate, 0.7–1.2 mm long; annuli of several rows of cells persistent cells; peristome of 32, erect, filiform, red, spiculose-papillose to spiral-ridged teeth, basal membrane short, to 0.5 mm high. Spores 12–18 μm, papillose. Calyptrae cucullate, yellow, smooth, 2–2.5 mm long.