Tropicos | Name - !Leptodontium syntrichioides (Müll. Hal.) Kindb.

Cent. Amer. Moss > Pottiaceae > Leptodontium > Leptodontium syntrichioides

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!Leptodontium syntrichioides (Müll. Hal.) Kindb.

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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:

Leptodontium syntrichioides is similar to L. longicaule in aspect and in most microscopic features. The only consistent difference between the two species is the presence in L. longicaule of a stem hyalodermis. Leptodontium flexifolium, L. ulocalyx, L. excelsum, and L. exasperatum are the other Central American species that have a stem sclerodermis. The first three species differ from L. syntrichioides in having low, scattered papillae on their leaf cells. Leptodontium exasperatum differs from L. syntrichioides in having narrower leaves with more sharply acute apices, collenchymatously thickened upper leaf cells, strongly porose basal leaf cells, and in having columnar rather than coroniform leaf cell papillae. The basal leaf regions of both L. syntrichioides and L. exasperatum, when seen with a hand-lens, sometimes have a shiny, hyaline aspect similar to that seen in L. capituligerum which differs from both species in having a stem hyalodermis.

Illustrations: Zander (1972, Figs. 142–146). Figure 49.

Habitat: Terrestrial; 3050 m.

Distribution in Central America: COSTA RICA. Cartago: Crosby 9783 (MO); Puntarenas: Holm & Iltis 1170a (FH).

World Range: Central America; Western South America.

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Leptodontium syntrichioides (C. Müll.) Kindb., Enum. Bryin. Exot. 63. 1888.

Trichostomum syntrichioides C. Müll., Linnaea 38: 602. 1874. Protologue. Colombia. Nova Granata, prov. Antioquia, Paramo de Sonson, 10–12,000 pedes altum in Sphagnetis: G. Wallis 1872.

Didymodon syntrichioides C. Müll. in Jaeg., Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1871-1872: 361. 1873. Protologue. Colombia. Patria: Amerika austral., Nova Granata, prov. Antioquia, 10000'–12000' (G. Wallis 1872), nom. nud.

Plants medium-sized to large, in loose tufts, yellow-green or green, to 8 cm long. Stems red, laxly ascending, sclerodermis present, sparsely radiculose, rhizoids red. Leaves well-spaced, erect or patent, spirally twisted and contorted when dry, squarrose-recurved from an erect base when wet, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 4–5 mm long, keeled above, broadly sheathing at base, not or weakly decurrent; apices acute to subobtuse; margins recurved in lower 1/2–3/4, dentate in upper 1/4–1/3; costa subpercurrent; upper leaf cells quadrate to hexagonal, walls firm and evenly thickened, with complex, coroniform papillae centered over the lumina, 7.5–13 x 7.5–13 μm, inner basal cells rectangular elongate, pluripapillose, firm-walled, occasionally porose, 25–67.5 x 5–8 μm, outer basal leaf cells not differentiated from the inner basal cells, alar cells short-rectangular to subquadrate. Sporophytes not known from Central America, description based on South American plants. Dioicous. Setae straight or flexuose, 1–4 per perichaetium, 15 mm long, yellow, becoming reddish with age. Capsules erect, cylindrical, 2–3 mm long, smooth to slightly furrowed when dry; exothecial cells short-rectangular, firm-walled; stomata at base of urn; operculum not seen; peristome teeth linear, irregularly divided nearly to the base, red-brown, striate, lightly papillose, to 600 μm long. Spores 7.5–12.5 μm, slightly papillose. Calyptra not seen.