Tropicos | Name - !Schistidium apocarpum (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp.

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!Schistidium apocarpum (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp.

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 2/17/2011)

Acceptance : Accepted

Project data (Last Modified On 2/17/2011)

Discussion:

Jones (1933) considered S. apocarpum the most polymorphic species within Grimmia sen. lat. and Bremer (1980), finding its variation random, continuous and non‑geographical, treated the major expressions as form groups. Blom (1996), on the other hand, split the S. apocarpum complex in Norway and Sweden into 31 species, 2 subspecies, and 2 varieties (!).

The single Guatemalan collection of the S. apocarpum complex belongs to the gracilis‑expression: plants long, slender, leaves loosely imbricate to secund, margins repand‑denticulate and upper leaf cells papillose. Bremer (1980) found hardly any differences between this form and typical S. apocarpum. The hyaline‑tipped leaves and sinuose leaf cells of S. apocarpum are two extremely variable features of the species. These two characters have been considered adaptations to xeric conditions (Lorch 1931, Tallis 1959, Bremer 1980), but in S. apocarpum they apparently have a primary genetic basis since their expressions were modified but not eliminated when cultured for long periods of time under moist conditions (Bremer 1981). Blom (1996) treated the gracilis-expression of S. apocarpum as S. trichodon (Brid.) Poelt var. trichodon.

Illustrations: Grout (1904, Pl. 18); Loeske (1913, Fig. 6); Bartram (1949, Fig. 64 A–C); Crum and Anderson (1981, Figs 189 A–C & 190 I–P); Ireland (1982, Pls. 131–132); Noguchi (1988, Fig. 146 A); Eddy (1990, Fig. 315); Jóhannsson (1993, Fig. 14); Allen (1994a, Figs. 9–16); Sharp et al. (1994, Fig. 290 a–f). Figure 105.

Habitat: On limestone boulders; 3200 m.

Distribution in Central America: GUATEMALA. Huehuetenango: Sharp 5000 (TENN).

World Range: Subarctic America, Western and Eastern Canada, Northwestern, North‑Central, Northeastern, Southwestern, South‑Central, and Southeastern U.S.A.; Mexico; Central America; Western and Southern South America; Subantarctic Islands; Northern, Middle, East, Southwestern, and Southeastern Europe; Macaronesia, Northern and East Tropical Africa; Caucasus, Middle Asia, Siberia, Russia Far East, Western Asia, China, Mongolia, Eastern Asia; Indian Subcontinent, Indo‑China, Malesia; Australia, New Zealand.

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Schistidium apocarpum (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp. in B.S.G., Bryol. Eur. 3: 99. 1845.

Grimmia apocarpa Hedw., Sp. Musc. Frond. 76. 1801. Protologue: Germany. Lipsiae ad piscinam Lindenthalensem, Gothanam versus Ileburgum, Dresdae ad rivulum Weiseriz ubertim.

Grimmia gracilis Schleich., Cat. Plant Helv. (Ed. 2) 29. 1807, nom. nud. Grimmia gracilis Schleich. ex Schwaegr., Sp. Musc. Frond. 1(1): 98.1811, hom. illeg. Grimmia apocarpa γ gracilis Web. & Mohr ex Nees et al., Bryol. Germ. 96. 1827. Schistidium apocarpum var. gracile (Web. & Mohr ex Nees et al.) Bruch & Schimp. in B.S.G., Bryol Eur. 3: 99 (fasc. 257 1845. Schistidium gracile (Web. & Mohr ex Nees et al.) Schleich. ex Limp., Laubm. Deutschl. 705. 1889. Lectotype (Deguchi 1978, see Bremer 1980, Blom 1996): Switzerland, Schleicher Plantae Cryptogamicae Helveticae Century 3, n° 14 (G).

Plants medium-sized, blackish green to red‑brown, 1.5–4 cm high. Leaves 1.6–1.8 mm long, erect to erect‑imbricate when dry, erect‑spreading when wet, ovate‑lanceolate, keeled in cross‑section; apices muticous or ending in short, hyaline, spinulose hair-points; margins entire or repand‑denticulate above, narrowly recurved throughout, bistratose;; costa percurrent, prominent at back, smooth or coarsely papillose above, in cross‑section costal cells more or less homogeneous; upper cells 8–12 μm, at times bistratose, irregularly rounded‑quadrate, straight‑walled or sinuose, medium leaf cells 8–14 μm long, oblong, sinuose, basal cells near costa not differentiated, 12–34 μm long, rectangular, straight‑walled or sinuose. Autoicous. Perichaetial leaves to 3 mm long. Setae 0.5 mm long, straight. Capsules 1 mm long, immersed, erect, ovoid‑ellipsoid to oblong, wide‑mouthed, smooth or weakly furrowed when dry; opercula obliquely short‑rostrate, 0.6–0.7 mm long; peristome teeth lanceolate, entire, papillose. Spores 8–10 μm, lightly papillose to smooth. Calyptrae mitrate or cucullate, 0.5 mm long.