Bryophytes (Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts) • Earth.com

Henicodium Moss

(Henicodium geniculatum)

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Description

Plants medium-sized to slender, mostly 1--2 cm; erect stems not or rarely branched. Stem leaves appressed when dry, spreading when moist, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 1.2--2.0 - 0.25--0.88 mm, apex gradually broadly acuminate or often appearing - abruptly so because of subapical recurved margins; median laminal cells linear-flexuose, 42--71 - 4 _-m, 1-papillose, rarely smooth; alar cells in 7--15 rows and extending up the margins by 25--50 cells, oblate, collenchymatous. Sporophytes not known from the flora region. In - open, mesic to dry forests, branches or less often tree trunks, frequently in, but rarely collected from, the canopy; near sea level in the floral area (to above 1000 m in South America); Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; Africa; se Asia.Henicodium geniculatum has mostly simple, erect secondary stems with 1-costate leaves. The margins are recurved nearly throughout and the cells are 1-papillose. The species may be distinguished from various Pireella species by leaves appressed when dry and spreading when moist (rather than little altered when dry), and leaf cells papillose over the lumina (rather than smooth or prorulose). Henicodium seems most often confused with poorly developed specimens of Pseudocryphaea domingensis. However, that species has a percurrent costa, leaf cells much wider and usually smooth, and no axillary gemmae but, usually, conspicuous flagellate branches.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Bryophyta
Class: Bryopsida
Order:Leucodontales
Family:Pterobryaceae
Genus:Henicodium
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