Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts

Friday, August 31, 2012

Bryophyte of the week

Pyrrhobryum spiniforme (Hedw.) Mitt.  

CLASS:BRYOPSIDA Rothm.
SUB CLASS : BRYIDAE Engl.SUPER ORDER : Bryanae (Engl.) Goffinet & W. R. Buck: 

ORDER:    RHIZOGONIALES Goffinet & W. R. Buck
FAMILY:  Rhizogoniaceae Broth.
GENUS:    Pyrrhobryum Mitt


Plants often appearing feathery, in loose tufts, dark green and glossy, occasionally yellowish green or brown with age. 
Stems erect, sometimes curved or curled, to 6 cm or more, solitary or occasionally branched, often grooved below; densely tomentose at base (to ca. 5 mm from base), rhizoids dark rusty-red, papillose.
 
Leaves distant on stem, crispate and curled when dry, erect-spreading to wide-spreading when wet, linear to linear-subulate, (5--)6--8 ´ 0.40--0.75 mm, somewhat concave or folded, apex often terminating in a double tooth, base undifferentiated or occasionally indistinctly decurrent; margins plane, slightly recurved at base, in transverse section 2-stratose, 1-stratose at base; laminal cells uniformly subquadrate to short-rectangular, (7--)10--14 µm; marginal basal cells quadrate to rectangular, 14--30 ´ 10 µm.

 Seta pale yellowish orange or straw-colored, 4--6 cm. 
Capsule ellipsoid-cylindric, (1.5--)2--3 mm, neck short; exothecial cells hexagonal, thick-walled; stomata several at urn base and neck; operculum 1.5--2 mm, oblique; exostome teeth reddish orange basally, pale yellow or hyaline distally, endostome segments pale yellow or hyaline, lightly papillose. 
Calyptra ca. 3.5 mm. Spores 16--18 µm.