Ctenidium Moss (Ctenidium malacodes)
Description
Plants small to medium sized, forming soft loose or dense mats, glossy green, yellowish-green to golden brown. Stems creeping, irregularly to regularly pinnately branched, branches numerous; in cross-section outer 4-5 rows of cells small, thick-walled, inner cells progressively larger, thin-walled, central strand present; pseudoparaphyllia foliose. Stem leaves loosely erect-spreading, broadly ovate-lanceolate or -subulate, to 2.2 mm long, 0.6-0.8mm wide, mostly falcate, plicate below, apex abruptly long acuminate, base auriculate and decurrent; margins plane, occasionally undulate, recurved at base, sharply serrate throughout; costae short and forked; median cells linear, 70-85 -m long, 3-4 -m wide, thick-walled, toward margin broader and shorter, mostly oblong to fusiform, distinctly papillose by projecting distal cell ends; alar region well differentiated, cells rectangular to quadrate, 35-40 -m long, to 15 -m wide. Branch leaves differentiated, narrowly ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate-subulate; margins sharply serrate. Dioicous. Perichaetia lateral; leaves oblong-lanceolate, abruptly setaceous, to 2.2 mm long. Setae elongate, to 30 mm long, slender and wiry, smooth. Capsules inclined to pendulous, urn ovoid to short cylindrical, ca. 1-1.5 mm long, curved, asymmetric; exothecial cells rectangular-rounded, 40-60 -m long, 20-30 -m wide; stomata at urn base, superficial; annuli in 1-3 rows, revoluble; opercula conic-short rostrate or apiculate, 0.4-0.6 mm long; peristome double, exostome teeth 16, broadly lanceolate, to ca. 550 -m long, finely cross-striate below, lightly papillose above; endostome basal membrane high, segments 16, keeled and perforate, faintly papillose, cilia 1-2. Calyptrae cucullate, 2.8 mm long, smooth and naked. Spores 16-26 -m in diameter, lightly papillose.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Bryophyta
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Class: Bryopsida
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Order: Hypnales
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Family: Hypnaceae
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Genus: Ctenidium
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