Blindia contecta

Detailed description

Autoicous, robust, subaquatic moss forming loose, somewhat dull to lustrous tufts. Plants golden-green to yellow-brown above, olive-green to black below. Stems stuff, rigidly and sparsely branched, with outer stem cells thick-walled. Leaves rigid, loosely erect to slightly secund, occasionally with apices curved, sometimes contorted to helicoid when dry, stiffly erect to spreading, upper portions slightly reflexed when moist, 3.0-8.0 mm long; lamina long subulate from an ovate to oblong-ovate base with subulae hemispheric in transverse section. about 2x lamina length, acute to narrowly obtuse, some leaves deciduous, not decurrent; margins entire. Nerve more or less 100-200 microns wide, variable in width, but always strong and distinct. Upper cells 8-20 x 5-8 microns, rounded-quadrate to short-rectangular, thick-walled, covering the excurrent costa. Lower cells 30-140 x 5-10 microns, elongate to rectangular, thick-walled, non-porose, straight. Alar cells 20-65 x 10-35 microns, variable, slightly enlarged and hyaline to thicker-walled, orange, and inflated, sometimes auriculate, not reaching nerve. Perichaetial leaves similar to vegetative, more or less wider at base. perigonia lateral below perichaetia. Seta 1.0-2.0 mm long, thick, stout, straight not twisted. Capsules with urns 0.5-1.1 mm long, hemispheric to obovate when dry and moist, brown, deeply immersed. Exothecial cells 15-35 microns wide at mid-urn, decreasing in size towards rim, isodiametric to rounded, thick-walled, rim cells in 5-10 rows, oblate to quadrate, with thick,. sinuous walls. Stomates not seen. Peristome of 16, lanceolate teeth, hyaline above, broken in upper portions in old capsules and blunt. Operculum conic rostrate, the beak more or less erect, long. Spores 32-40 microns.