Calymperaceae

Diagnosis: Plants dark- to yellowish-green, to 10 mm tall but commonly shorter, in low, dense turfs or clumps. Leaves dimorphic, involute and contorted when dry, mostly 2-3 mm long, oblong to broadly lanceolate, bases not or only somewhat broader than upper lamina (except in gemmiferous leaves); margins usually slightly thickened, entire above, more or less serrate at shoulders; teniolae usually conspicuous at shoulders and above but sometimes weak or nearly lacking in some leaves; cancellinae distinct, often truncate distally; cells at midleaf mostly 7-8 µm in diameter, smooth or slightly papillose dorsally, bulging ventrally; costa smooth except towards apex; gemmiferous leaves narrowed distally, often terminating in a distinct gemmae-receptacle bearing gemmae in hairbrush-like tufts on ventral surface. Setae ca. 3 mm long; capsules to 2 mm long; operculum ca. 0.5 mm long. Calyptra 3-3.5 mm long. Spores finely papillose. mostly 28-35 µm diameter.

Distribution: Widespread in the neotropics and tropical Africa; western Asia.

Ecology: On tree trunks, dead wood and rocks at low elevations in coastal and inland forests.

Notes: W. D. Reese "The broad cancellinae, often truncate distally, and common presence of haibrush-like tufts of gemmae on gema receptacles on the leaf tips, are distinctive."

Type Citation: Species Muscorum Frondosorum, Supplementum Primum 2: 334. pl. 98. 1816.

Type Locality: In regno Oware Africae

Type Collection: Palisot s.n.

Types Deposited at: Isotypes: lectotype selected by Edwards 1980. J. Bryol. 11: 49-93. (S)

Other Published Figures: E. B. Bartram. 1949. Mosses of Guatamala. fig. 36 F-H (as C. richardii); Crum & Anderson. 1981. Mosses of Eastern N.A. fig. 115 A-G (as C. richardii)