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BFNA Title: Daltoniaceae |
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DALTONIACEAE
Schimper Patricia M. Eckel Plants small to medium, in
dark green to yellow-green turfs or mats. Stems short, not or sparingly branched, with crowded leaves
spirally inserted; often red, in section with moderately differentiated
cells; cortex deeply red pigmented, inner cortical cells somewhat larger than
the outer, the walls thinner; outer cortical cell walls somewhat smaller and
thicker; rhizoids from stem bases, sometimes clustered proximal to leaf
bases, sparingly branched (not 2--3-pinnate); central strand usually lacking;
pseudoparaphyllia absent [rarely filamentous]; axillary hairs with hyaline
cells 3-4(--12), basal cell usually small and brown. Leaves terete-foliate [complanate], often dorsiventrally
differentiated and asymmetric; margins bordered [rarely not bordered], entire
to serrate or ciliate cells short,
usually rounded, isodiametric [oval] to (long-) hexagonal, mostly with firm
walls, smooth, not differentiated in the basal region; costa usually single,
stout. Sexual condition:
autoicous, dioicous or synoicous. Specialized
asexual reproduction various, common. Seta lateral, usually elongate, smooth, often roughened to
spinose. Capsule erect or inclined,
annulus absent [present]; peristome double, exostome of 16 teeth, thin, papillose,
not bordered or furrowed, [outer plates thick, furrowed, cross-striolate], endostome
with low basal membrane, segments papillose; cilia reduced or absent; operculum
erect, subulate, beaked. Calyptra mitrate,
base with [without] fringe of 1-celled hairs [multicellular], 1-stratose at
the middle, usually naked, rarely densely hairy. Genera
14, species ca. 150 (1 genus, 1 species in the flora): mainly tropical and
hyperoceanic southern-temperate. Most
of the genera in the Daltoniaceae are complanate leaved (W. Frey 2009), and it
is conspicuous that the only genus in the flora area, Daltonia, one of the three largest genera in the family, has
leaves that are spirally inserted and terete-foliate. Daltonia is one of the few genera in the family to display a
synoicous sexual condition, in addition to autoicous but not dioicous species.
Only Distichophyllum, usually dioicous
or autoicous, is rarely synoicous (W. Frey 2009). The leaf shape is also
distinctive in the family. Leaves of many Daltonia
species are lanceolate with nearly parallel sides, gradually acuminate,
quite distinct from the ovate or obovate, abruptly apiculate or obtuse leaves
common in other genera and species in the family. Daltonia shares the epiphyllous character of the family. SELECTED
REFERENCES Frey, W., ed. 2009.
Syllabus of Plant Families: A. Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. Part
3. Bryophytes and seedless Vascular Plants. 1.
DALTONIA Hooker & Taylor, Muscol.
Brit. 80. 1818, name conserved * [For Rev. John Dalton, British botanist and
bryologist, 1764--1843] Plants glossy, dark to yellow-green
to brownish. Stems prostrate or
suberect with short, ascending branches, to 1 cm. Leaves erect or erect-spreading, flexuose when wet,
flexuose-twisted and contorted when dry, ovate-lanceolate, ligulate- to
lance-acuminate, 1--3 mm, keeled, all similar, symmetric, straight, not
dorsiventrally differentiated, laminal cells generally incrassate, generally
uniform in shape, rhomboidal to elongate-hexagonal, sometimes rounded,
smooth, longer near the base; margins strongly bordered with several rows of
incrassate, linear cells, entire, plane or recurved, sometimes variable on
same stem; costa ending before the apex in the distal quarter. Specialized asexual reproduction by
multicellular gemmae, variously shaped. Sexual
condition autoicous or synoicous. Seta
scabrous distally [smooth]. Capsule
erect; annulus absent; exothecial cells strongly collenchymatous; peristome
teeth without striations, densely papillose, with zig-zag longitudinal lines,
hygrocastique (teeth incurved when dry and reflexed when moist), not furrowed;
segments same length as teeth, narrow, perforate along keels, linear, densely
papillose. Calyptra smooth to somewhat roughened distally, with dense basal
fringe hairs. Spores papillose. Species
ca. 22 (1 in the flora): nw North
America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, 1. Daltonia
splachnoides
(Smith) Hooker & Taylor, Muscol. Brit., 80. 1818 C F Neckera splachnoides Smith, Engl. Bot. 36:
2564. 1813; Daltonia gracilis Mitten Stems to 10(--15) mm, often
deep red. Leaves 1--3 mm, to 0.4
mm wide; margins plane or variably revolute on leaves from the same stem
(throughout one side, partially distally or proximally); entire, carinate as
a narrow median fold; margin border distinct to the insertion, well defined in
6--8 rows at the base, 3--4 rows at
midleaf and reduced to ca. 2 rows in the acumen; distal cells ovate to
rhomboidal to narrowly rhomboid-hexagonal, 12(--24) x (6--)7 \um, incrassate, pellucid basal cells
linear-oblong, to 50 \um, hyaline, stem cortical cells attached at the leaf insertion.
Seta 6--7 mm, red to red-brown,
papillose-scabrous in distal 1/2. Capsule
red-brown to dark brown, erect to subinclined, obovoid with a short neck,
papillose; exothecial cells collenchymatous, papillose; operculum rostrate. Calyptra slightly roughened distally.
Spores ca. (10--)14--16 \um. Capsules
mature summer. Base of trees, fallen branches, trunks of shrubs and trees, forests, foggy, hyperoceanic areas,
0--300 m; B.C. (Queen Charlotte Islands); California (San Francisco Co.);
Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; Europe (Ireland); Asia
(China); Atlantic Islands; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia. In
the flora area Daltonia splachnoides is
known only from San Francisco Co., California, Eucalyptus and Cupressus forest,
in partial shade on fallen branches of Cupressus
or trunks of Myoporum laetum or
bases of Eucalyptus, and the Queen
Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, being first collected by W. B. Schofield
on Moresby Island (W. H. Welch 1972). Commonly, D. splachnoides is distinguished by plane laminal margins. In the
Moss Flora of Mexico (F. D. Bowers 1994), the five Daltonia species reported from that country fall into two groups:
one with the leaf margins plane throughout or occasionally reflexed proximally
and the other with leaf margins narrowly revolute. For D. gracilis, the margins are described as “narrowly revolute
nearly throughout or only here and there and on 1 side or the other, or both.”
In the introduction to E. B. Bartram's (1931) review of the genus, he
repudiated reports of D. splachnoides from
ADDITIONAL
REFERENCES. Bartram,
E. B. 1931. A review of the American species of Daltonia. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 58: 31--48. Smith,
A. J. E. 2004. The Moss Flora of Yu,
J., N. Devos, P. Majestyk and A. J. Shaw. 2010. Intercontinentally disjunct
species are derived rather than relictual in the moss genus Daltonia (Bryophyta). Taxon 59: 459--465. Welch,
W. H. 1972. Hookeriaceae: North America and |
