BFNA Title: Heterophyllium
Author: W. B. Schofield
Date: November 17, 2009
Edit Level: R
Version: 1

Bryophyte Flora of North America, Provisional Publication
Missouri Botanical Garden
BFNA Web site: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/BFNA/bfnamenu.htm

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Heterophyllium - Sematophyllaceae

XX. HETEROPHYLLIUM (Schimper) Kindberg, Canad. Rec. Sci. 6: 72. 1894 * [Greek hetero, different, and phyllon, leaf, alluding to somewhat different stem and branch leaves]

W. B. Schofield†

Hypnum Hedwig subg. Heterophyllium Schimper, Syn. Musc. Eur.., 629. 1860

Plants robust to medium sized, strongly or weakly glossy and yellow-green to red-bronze, mats of reclining or suberect shoots, 2--6 cm, subpinnately to irregularly branched, somewhat to weakly complanate. Stems red-brown, with foliose pseudoparaphyllia. Stem leaves erect-spreading, ovate to lanceolate, long-acuminate, toothed distally, costa double or obscure; cells smooth, elongate and flexuose in most of lamina; alar cells in a differentiated group, often pigmented, thick-walled, in several rows, with middle-lamella apparent, wider than laminal cells. Branch leaves somewhat smaller, lanceolate, often curved, alar cells less differentiated. Sexual condition autoicous or dioicous. Seta elongate, smooth, reddish, 2--4 cm. Capsule inclined to suberect, curved, cylindric, 1.5--3 mm; peristome double; operculum conic.

Species 1 (1 in the flora): widely distributed in temperate and highland tropical areas, North America, Central America, Eurasia, Pacific Islands.

SELECTED LITERATURE: Robinson, H. and C. F. Reed. 1966. The status of the moss genus Heterophyllium Bryologist 69:317--323.

1. Heterophyllium affine (Hooker in Kunth) M. Fleischer,Musci Fl. Buitenzorg 4: 1177. 1923

Hypnum affine Hooker in Kunth, Syn. Pl. 1: 63. 1822; Heterophyllium nemorosum (Koch ex Bridel) Kindberg; Hypnum nemorosum Koch ex Bridel

Stem leaves 1.5--3 mm, erect to somewhat falcate; branch leaves smaller; all leaves toothed distally.

Mainly on rotten logs, soil, tree bases in humid forests; low to moderate elevation; Ga., Ky., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va; Mexico; Central America, Eurasia; Pacific Islands.

Heterophyllium affine is somewhat polymorphic and has accumulated many synonyms outside its North American and European range.