Polytrichum sphaerothecium (Besch.) Müll. Hal.

Zhao, Wei, Wang, Zhaoming, Zheng, Lina, Naren, Gaowa, He, Qiang & Han, Wei, 2024, A step forward in botanical exploration with three new Polytrichaceae records from Tibet, China, Biodiversity Data Journal 12, pp. e 133971-e 133971 : e133971-

Polytrichum sphaerothecium (Besch.) Müll. Hal.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: PE 2155741 ; recordNumber: 12035; recordedBy: Q. He; occurrenceID: 6BB4EF1B-4969-55F7-A776-DD969F0109CE; Taxon: order: Polytrichales ; family: Polytrichaceae ; genus: Polytrichum ; Location: island: Asia; country: China; countryCode: China / CN; stateProvince: Tibet; county: Dingri; municipality: Qudang; locality: Cuoqu ; verbatimLocality: Shigatse; verbatimElevation: 3796 m; verbatimCoordinates: 28 º 05 ′ 23 " N, 87 º 21 ′ 53 " E; Identification: identifiedBy: Y. Jia and Q. He; Event: year: 2018; month: 6; day: 21; habitat: On the forest floor; Record Level: language: cn

Description

Plants small, brownish-green, slightly glossy, in dense aggregated tufts (Fig. 3 a). Stems erect, 1-3 cm high. Leaves slightly incurved, usually appressed on stems when dry, erect-patent when moist, 3-6 × 1.2-1.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or cucullate at apex, sheathing indistinct (Fig. 3 f, g); costa excurrent into a short filiform apex, smooth or a few teeth on back near apex; leaf margins involute, covering ventral lamellae; upper leaf cells quadrate or oblate, 12-15 μm wide, sometimes the length 1-2 times longer than width; median cells rectangular, 18-40 × 8-10 μm; basal cells quadrate to narrowly rectangular, bordered by narrow, hyaline cells; ventral lamellae in ca. 30 rows, 6-11 cells high; marginal cells of lamellae pyriform, thick-walled. Dioecious. Male plants similar to the female ones, occasionally with new innovations. Perigonial leaves ca. 3 mm long, with oblong sheathing base. Perichaetial leaves up to 9 mm long, from an ovate sheathing base, suddenly narrowing to a lanceolate lamina (Fig. 3 e). Setae 5-9 mm long, pendulous; capsules nearly spherical, horizontal to cernuous, with distinct discoid apophyses (Fig. 3 b); exothecial cells hexagonal to triangular, without mammillae; opercula with short beaks; peristome teeth often more than 32, triangular, acuminate, ca. 30 μm long (Fig. 3 d), greyish-yellow, membrane nearly as long as the peristome teeth. Calyptrae triangular, 3-4 mm long, densely covered with long hairs (Fig. 3 c).

Distribution

China (Tibet [present study], Jilin), Korea, Japan and the Aleutian Islands ( Wu and Jia 2004).

Figures

Figure 3. Polytrichum sphaerothecium (Besch.) Müll. Hal. a Plant; b Capsule; c Calyptra; d Peristome teeth; e Outer perichaetial leaf; f Leaves; g Cross section of leaf. Scale bars: h = 1 cm (a); h = 3 mm (b, c); h = 200 μm (d, g); h = 2 mm (e, f).