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

Cent. Amer. Moss > Pottiaceae > Leptodontium > Leptodontium wallisii

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!Leptodontium wallisii (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 wallisii has an aspect unlike any other Central American species of Leptodontium due to its high, oblong, tightly sheathing leaf bases. Other distinctive basal leaf cells features of the species are the 1–3 rows of wide, bulging, short-rectangular, and smooth cells at the margins, and the sinuose-porose interior cells. The leaf margins of L. wallisii in Central America vary from crenulate to dentate, and often single plants have leaves with both types of margins. Zander (1972) considered L wallisii and L. pungens closely related. Leptodontium pungens differs from L. wallisii in having a shorter, weakly clasping leaf base and non-differentiated marginal cells in the sheathing leaf base.

Illustrations: Zander (1972, Figs. 100-105); De Sloover (1987, Figs. 57–75). Figure 52.

Habitat: On shrubs and soil; 3130–3600 m.

Distribution in Central America: COSTA RICA. Limón: Davidse et al. 26022D (MO); San José: Crosby & Crosby 5773 (MO).

World Range: Central America; Western and Northern South America, Brazil; West-Central and East Tropical Africa.

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

Trichostomum wallisii C. Müll., Linnaea 38: 603. 1874. Protologue: Colombia. Nova Granata, prov. Antioquia, Paramo de Ruiz 13,000 ped. altum in locis paludosis sphagnosis: G. Wallis 1872.

Didymodon wallisi C. Müll. in Jaeg., Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1871-1872: 362. 1873. Based on. Colombia. Patria: Amerika austral., Nova Granata, prov. Antioquia, Paramo de Ruiz 13000' (G. Wallis Nr. 186), nom. nud.

Plants medium-sized in loose tufts, yellowish brown, 2.5–6 cm high. Stems red, erect or laxly ascending, hyalodermis present, sparsely radiculose. Leaves spreading, flexuose to crispate and twisted when dry, wide-spreading to squarrose when wet, lanceolate from an high, oblong sheathing base, 3–4 mm long, keeled above, strongly erect-sheathing at base, moderately decurrent; apices acuminate; margins recurved in lower 1/2–2/3, dentate to minutely crenulate in upper 1/3; costa subpercurrent to percurrent; upper leaf cells irregularly quadrate, subrectangular or triangular, firm-walled with rounded corners, pluripapillose, papillae crowded, simple to multifid, 7.5–15 x 10–12 μm, median leaf cells longer, with thicker, often porose cell walls, inner basal cells long, narrowly rectangular, with thick, often sinuose-porose cell walls, 37–87 x 7.5–10 μm, papillae scattered, outer 1–3 rows of basal cells wide, short-rectangular, smooth, alar cells not differentiated. Dioicous. Sporophytes not known in Central America, description based on South American plants. Setae straight, 10–17 mm long, yellow-brown (sometimes reddish). Capsules erect, cylindrical, 1.5–2 mm long, smooth when dry; exothecial cells subquadrate to short-rectangular; stomata at base of urn; operculum not seen; peristome teeth linear, irregularly divided nearly to the base, yellow-brown, smooth to indistinctly striate and papillose. Spores 20–40 μm, papillose. Calyptra not seen.