Bryophyte of the week

Orthorrhynchium elegans ssp. nietneri (Müll.Hal.) S.H.Lin

(Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenbuchan/6991156165/ )

• Order  -         Hypnales (M. Fleisch.) W. R. Buck & Vitt
• Family  -       Orthorrhynchiaceae S. H. Lin
• Genus   -      Orthorrhynchium Reichardt
• Species -    Orthorrhynchium elegans 

 (http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/people/goffinet/Classificationmosses.html#Acrocladium)

Dioicous pleurocarpous mosses. Plants yellowish green to pale green, silky, forming smooth mats. Stems 3–10 cm long, distichous.
 Leaves oblong-ovate to lingulate, 0.6–1.7 mm long, 0.4–1.3 mm wide, symmetrically conduplicate, smooth, narrowed towards the insertion; apex rounded to truncate, cucullate. Mid-laminal cells linear, 40–100 × 4–6 μm, slightly vermicular, ±thick-walled, not or scarcely and faintly pitted; apical cells in 3–8 rows along the median line, quadrate to rectangular; alar cells not differentiated.
 Capsules short-exserted, erect.Peristome diplolepideous, lacking an endostome, but with a well-developed properistome.

Occurs in India, Sri Lanka, New Guinea, eastern Australia, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and New Zealand (including the Auckland Islands).