Campylopus Moss

Campylopus subulatus is known only from two localities in California and one in Oregon. Although all records of C. subulatus from North America were referred to C. schimperi by J.-P. Frahm and D. H. Vitt (1978), collections made later in California and Oregon proved to be the former species. Campylopus schimperi grows in compact tufts in alpine habitats and differs from C. subulatus by an abaxially smooth costa, and rectangular, not subquadrate distal laminal cells. Campylopus subulatus resembles C. tallulensis. The latter differs by distinct groups of abaxial stereids and adaxial hyalocysts, which are ¹/2 as wide as the thickness of the costa.

Plants minute to medium-sized, 4–20 mm high, yellowish green or golden brown, not shiny, in loose tufts. Stems erect or ascending, often simple, rarely branched, radiculose at base. Leaves stiff and erect, 2–4(–5) mm long, appressed when dry, erect-spreading when moist, narrowly lanceolate, gradually narrowed from about the middle to a short, subulate acumen, lamina extending beyond 1/3 the leaf length; margins plane, entire below, faintly serrulate at the apex; costa occupying less than 2/3 the leaf base width, shortly excurrent, often ending in a smooth or denticulate, concolorous point, distinctly ridged and serrate at back in the upper part, without stereids in transverse section, dorsal cells with incrassate walls and lumina too large to qualify as substereids; upper cells subquadrate to short-rectangular, thick-walled; basal cells narrowly rectangular, hyaline, thin-walled, becoming linear at the margins; alar cells lax, often hyaline, inflated, sometimes slightly protruding into the costa. Dioicous. Setae ca. 10 mm long, straight when dry, cygneous when moist, yellowish brown; capsules erect, ellipsoidal to short-cylindric, symmetric or slightly asymmetric, not contracted below the mouth; opercula obliquely long-rostrate. Calyptrae fringed at base. Spores ca. 28 µm in diameter, brownish.

Plants 0.5-3 cm, in loose, slender tufts, yellowish green to green, not tomentose. Leaves 3-4 mm, erect-patent when wet, appressed when dry, lanceolate, narrowed into a short, straight subula; margins entire below, faintly serrate at apex; apex of leaf serrate at back; alar cells hardly differentiated, only slightly larger than the basal laminal cells; basal laminal cells thin-walled, hyaline, rectangular; distal laminal cells short, subquadrate; costa filling ¹/2-²/3 of leaf width, excurrent in a short concolorous apex, in transverse section showing adaxial hyalocysts that are ¹/3 as wide as the costa, without abaxial stereids, ribbed at back. Specialized asexual reproduction by deciduous stem tips. Sporophytes not known in North America [rare elsewhere].

Distribution: China, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Europe, and North America.

Habitat: on wet rocks or sandy soil.

Campylopus latinervis (Mitt.) Jaeg., Ber. Thätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1870–71: 426. 1872. Dicranum latinervis Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot., Suppl. 1: 17. 1859.