Sematophyllaceae

Diagnosis: Plants smallish, pale- to golden-green, often flat, small, lax mats. Stems creeping, to ca. 3 cm long, freely but irregularly branched, the branches often ascending, short, somewhat curved. Stem and branch leaves similar, erect to erect-spreading, sometimes homomallous, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 0.8-1.6 mm long, gradually acuminate, flat to shallowly concave; margins entire, often reflexed; cells long-rhomboidal to linear-flexuose, 6-12:1, smoooth, firm-walled, not porose, not shorter in the acumen; alar cells enlarged, ± inflated, concolorous or colored across the insertion, oblong, usually not more than 2-3 × as large as the quadrate cells above them. Setae relatively short, smooth, reddish, 0.4-0.9 cm long, straight; capsules suberect, ± symmetric, short-cylindric, ca. 1 mm long, slightly constricted below the mouth when dry; annulus not differentiated or with a single row of cells fragmenting and usually falling with the operculum. Spores finely papillose, 10-17 µm diameter.

Distribution: U.S; Mexico; Central America; Caribbean, South America; tropical Africa

Ecology: Growing on tree trunks and rotten logs, rarely on soil or rocks, in mostly mesic, open habitats, from near sea level to 1000 m.

Basionym: Leskea adnata Michx.

Basionym Citation: Flora Boreali-Americana 2: 310. 1803.

Other Published Figures: W. R. Buck. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Plate 148 (9-18).