Ravenel'S Pleuridium Moss

Description

Stem leaves erect, concave, lamina juxtacostally 2-stratose, becoming 1-stratose towards margin; proximal leaves minute, bract-like, narrowly deltoid, acuminate, 0.53--0.85 - 0.15--0.25 mm, entire; distal stem leaves ovate to lanceolate, acuminate to subulate, 1.05--1.75 - 0.2--0.38 mm, entire; costa broad, percurrent to excurrent. Perichaetial leaves oblong to obovate-lanceolate proximally, carinate-acuminate distally, gradually narrowed to a broad, channeled to subtubulose acumen which is generally shorter than the leaf base, 1.58--2.63 - 0.43--0.58 mm, margins serrulate to serrate, erect to incurved distally, coarsely and irregularly to distinctly jaggedly toothed at shoulder; lamina plicate to pleated; basal cells oblong to rectangular; median cells subquadrate to short-rectangular; distal cells at shoulder longer, long-rhomboidal to curved linear; costa excurrent with a conduplicate or canaliculate awn, broad, smooth on back, indistinct at mid leaf, confluent with the juxtacostal part of lamina, filling most of the acumen; transverse section of costa at mid leaf with adaxial guide cells and abaxial stereid cells forming wide rows across the width with the central accessory cells forming an aperture; innermost perichaetial leaves ovate-acuminate, percurrent. Sexual condition paroicous, antheridia naked in the distal leaf axils just proximal to the perichaetium. Seta 0.15--0.2 mm; spores (32--)37.5--42.5 -m, bluntly and finely papillose, yellow to orange in mass.Capsules mature March to June. Scattered or in loose tufts on bare sandy soil in open spaces of scrub oak association; eastern North America, Coastal Plain and lower Piedmont; Ala., Ark., Del., Fla., Ga., La., Mass., Mo., N.C., N.J., Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tex., W.Va.