Ptychostomum warneum

Plants in dense or open turfs, red, green, or yellow-green. Stems 0.5–2 (–3) cm, fertile stems comose, innovations evenly foliate. Leaves yellow-green to red, crowded, strongly contorted to shrunken when dry, ovatelanceolate, flat, 0.5–2 mm, often gradually enlarged toward stem apex; base usually green, not decurrent; margins revolute proximally, limbidium strong, in 2 or 3 rows; apex acuminate; costa short-excurrent, awn slender; proximal laminal cells rectangular, 3–4: 1; medial and distal cells 18–22 µm wide, 2–3: 1, walls thin. Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Sexual condition usually polyoicous, sometimes autoicous. Seta purple or red, 2–4 (–5) cm, stout, straight to somewhat flexuose. Capsule yellowbrown or brown, pyriform, symmetric, 2–4 mm, mouth yellow; hypophysis slender; operculum long-conic; peristome reduced; exostome teeth yellow or brown basally, pale-yellow to hyaline distally, lamellae straight, pores absent near base along mid line; endostome weakly adherent to exostome, basal membrane 1/2 exostome height, segments narrowly perforate, cilia absent or rudimentary. Spores with size variable in same capsule, (32–) 36–48 (–50) µm, pale green or yellow.

Phenology: Capsules mature Jul–Aug.
Habitat: Damp soil
Elevation: low elevations (0-50 m)

Greenland, Que., n Eurasia (Himalayan Nepal)

Discussion

Ptychostomum warneum is an arctic-boreal species that is distinguished from the related P. calophyllum by its pyriform brown capsule with a slender neck, generally larger spores, and acuminate leaves. The stems are sparsely radiculose; the costal awns are smooth. The species is known from only one location in Quebec, in the Mingan Islands. Capsules are needed for identification.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa