Brachythecium campestre

(Müller Hal.) Schimper in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper

in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper, Bryol. Europ. 6: 16. 1853.

Basionym: Hypnum rutabulum var. campestre Müller Hal. Syn. Musc. Frond. 2: 368. 1851
Synonyms: Brachythecium calcareum Müller Hal. & Kindberg B. leucoglaucum
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 28. Treatment on page 419. Mentioned on page 415, 426, 456.

Plants medium-sized to large, in moderately dense mats, light green, yellow-green, or whitish stramineous. Stems to 7 cm, creeping, terete-foliate, irregularly pinnate, branches to 8 mm, straight to slightly curved, terete-foliate. Stem-leaves erect, loosely appressed, loosely imbricate, narrowly ovate-triangular or ovatelanceolate, broadest at 1/9–1/7 leaf length, sometimes almost at costa insertion, concave, plicate, plicae usually parallel in falcate leaves, often shallow and uneven in straight leaves, giving some leaves a crumply appearance, 1.5–2.6 × 0.5–1.2 mm; base rounded, broadly short-decurrent; margins partly plane, recurved in many places, serrulate to serrate in acumen, occasionally almost entire, variable within one shoot; apex gradually tapered or acuminate; costa to 40–70% leaf length, moderately strong, small terminal tooth sometimes present; alar cells subquadrate or short-rectangular, same size as or smaller than basal-cells, 15–25 × 11–13 µm, walls thick, region ± clearly delimited, 4–9 × 4–7 cells; laminal cells linear, (30–) 60–100 (–110) × 6–9 µm; basal-cells to 20–40 × 10–15 µm, region in 1–3 rows, not markedly different from more distal cells. Branch leaves often falcate-secund; alar region conspicuous, pellucid, triangular. Sexual condition autoicous. Seta orangebrown to dark-brown with age, 2–2.5 cm, rough or occasionally smooth. Capsule inclined to horizontal, dark-brown, elongate, curved, 2 mm; annulus separating by fragments; operculum conic. Spores 15–19 µm.


Habitat: Soil, wooded areas, limestone, concrete blocks, tree trunks
Elevation: low to moderate elevations (10-500 m)

Distribution

V28 648-distribution-map.gif

Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Sask., Conn., Del., Iowa, Maine, Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.Y., R.I., S.Dak., Wis., Eurasia

Discussion

A. J. Grout (1928–1940, vol. 3) and H. A. Crum and L. E. Anderson (1981) expressed some doubts on the status of Brachythecium campestre and its clear differentiation from B. salebrosum. However, B. salebrosum seems absent or at least rare in eastern North America (except probably the more northern regions of eastern Canada). The vast majority of collections referred to B. salebrosum in eastern North America belong to B. acutum, B. campestre, B. rotaeanum, and other species. There are some differences between European and American B. campestre; if further studies provide additional evidence for their separation, then the American populations should be called B. leucoglaucum; for typification of this name and discussion on this species, see M. S. Ignatov et al. (2008). The diagnostic characters of B. campestre include the usually light green to whitish color, ovate-lanceolate leaves that are rather crumply plicate when optimally developed, alar cells in small to large groups of rather small and subquadrate cells, and, usually, a minutely rough seta.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

"long" is not a number."broad" is not a number.

... more about "Brachythecium campestre"
dioicous +, autoicous +  and sexual +
acuminate +  and tapered +
Michael S. Ignatov +
(Müller Hal.) Schimper in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper +
10um +  and 15um +
short-decurrent +
rounded +  and narrowed +
rounded +
short to long +
Hypnum rutabulum var. campestre +
terete-foliate +
straight;slightly curved +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (0.8 cm8 mm <br />0.008 m <br />) +
cucullate +
inclined +  and horizontal +
2 cm20 mm <br />0.02 m <br /> (?) +
specialized +
synoicous +, dioicous +, autoicous +, sexual +  and asexual +
short-rectangular +  and subquadrate +
larger or smaller +
differentiated +
11um +  and 13um +
3 (?) +  and 2 (?) +
discernible +
Man. +, N.B. +, Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.) +, N.S. +, Ont. +, Sask. +, Conn. +, Del. +, Iowa +, Maine +, Mich. +, Minn. +, Mo. +, N.H. +, N.Y. +, R.I. +, S.Dak. +, Wis. +  and Eurasia +
low to moderate elevations (10-500 m) +
not adherent +
Soil, wooded areas, limestone, concrete blocks, tree trunks +
6um (?) +  and 9um (?) +
straight +
falcate +
moderate to somewhat +
entire +, serrulate +  and serrate +
perfect +  and xerocastique +
hygrocastique +
shallow +
0.15 cm1.5 mm <br />0.0015 m <br /> (0.26 cm2.6 mm <br />0.0026 m <br />) +
0.05 cm0.5 mm <br />5.0e-4 m <br /> (0.12 cm1.2 mm <br />0.0012 m <br />) +
in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper, Bryol. Europ. +
conspicuous +  and delimited +
autoicous +  and sexual +
triangular +
1 +  and 3 +
orangebrown +  and dark-brown +
2 cm20 mm <br />0.02 m <br /> (2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br />) +
ovatelanceolate +  and ovate-triangular +
terete-foliate +
not reddish +
arching +, erect +, ascending +  and creeping +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (7 cm70 mm <br />0.07 m <br />) +
Brachythecium calcareum +  and B. leucoglaucum +
Brachythecium campestre +
Brachythecium +
species +
incrassate +
whitish stramineous +, yellow-green +  and light green +
medium-sized;large +