Campylopus flexuosus

(Hedwig) Bridel

Muscol. Recent., suppl. 4: 71. 1818,.

Basionym: Dicranum flexuosum Hedwig Sp. Musc. Frond., 145, plate 38, figs. 1–4. 1801
Synonyms: Campylopus paradoxus Wilson
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 27. Treatment on page 370. Mentioned on page 367, 368, 375.

Plants in dense, 1–3 cm, dark green mats, usually reddish tomentose below. Leaves 5–7 mm, erect-patent when wet, flexuose when dry, the distal leaves sometimes curved and secund, lanceolate, ending in a straight concolorous tip, which serrate in the distal part; alar cells hyaline or reddish; basal laminal cells thick-walled, rectangular, ca. 4–5: 1, narrower toward the margins; distal laminal cells quadrate to oblique or short rhombic; costa filling 1/2–2/3 of leaf width, in transverse-section showing abaxial groups of stereids and adaxial small substereidal hyalocysts which smaller than the median deuters. Specialized asexual reproduction by microphyllous branches in the axils of the distal leaves. Sporophytes not known in North America.


Habitat: Rocks, humus covered boulders and outcrops, also humic or peaty soil
Elevation: 0-1500 m

Distribution

B.C., N.C., Central America, South America, Europe, Asia (China), c Africa

Discussion

Campylopus flexuosus has been only found in a few localities in the coastal lowlands of British Columbia and a single locality in the Appalachian Mountains. The occurrences in East Asia and British Columbia may be interpreted as relictual from the Tertiary, from which area C. flexuosus was—in contrast to Europe—not able to spread after the Pleistocene. The only record from the Appalachian Mountains on Flat Rock, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina, is difficult to explain because many similar habitats exist near that vicinity in which the species has not been found. Before 1980, all specimens from North America, except for three labelled as C. flexuosus, belonged in fact to C. tallulensis or rarely to C. surinamensis. Campylopus flexuosus, however, differs from C. tallulensis by thick-walled, chlorophyllose basal laminal cells and small adaxial hyalocysts and in appearence by dark green color. Campylopus tallulensis has hyaline thin-walled basal laminal cells, large adaxial hyalocysts (even visible in surface view of the costa) and commonly a golden yellowish color. Campylopus surinamensis has longer distal laminal cells and the costa ends in a strongly dentate often subhyaline awn.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.
... more about "Campylopus flexuosus"
dioicous +  and sexual +
lamellose +  and ridged +
not dehiscent +
persistent +  and deciduous +
Jan-Peter Frahm +
(Hedwig) Bridel +
short to long +
broader +
Dicranum flexuosum +
microphyllous +
reproduction +  and asexual +
pseudolateral +
entire +  and ciliate +
cucullate +
asymmetric +  and symmetric +
non-stereid +
reddish +  and hyaline +
papillose +  and mammillose +
inflated +
not differentiated +
twisted +  and sinuose +
percurrent;excurrent +
B.C. +, N.C. +, Central America +, South America +, Europe +, Asia (China) +  and c Africa +
0-1500 m +
Rocks, humus covered boulders and outcrops, also humic or peaty soil +
microphyllous +  and foliate +
falcate-secund +
flexuose +
deciduous +
erect-patent +
lanceolate +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (0.7 cm7 mm <br />0.007 m <br />) +
tomentose +
nonpitted +  and pitted +
toothed +  and forked +
pitted-striolate +
papillose +  and striolate +
hyaline +, orange and horizontally striate +  and reddish +
undifferentiated +
Muscol. Recent., suppl. +
cygneous +  and elongate +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (1 cm10 mm <br />0.01 m <br />) +
spheric +
with dense reddish or whitish tomentum +  and not tomentose +
superficial +
Campylopus paradoxus +
Campylopus flexuosus +
Campylopus +
species +
concolorous +
straight +
deciduous +
denticulate +
whitish +, reddish +  and dense +
lanceolate +