Bryum tenuidens

Detailed description

Synoicous, minute, densely tufted and matted terricolous moss. Plants yellowish-green above, light brown below. Mats held together at base by radicles. Stems 5.0-7.5 mm tall, simple or sparingly branched. Leaves about 2 mm long, either in dense comose tufts or rather regularly paced on the stem, erect and appressed both dry and moist, vinous red at the wide base, oblong, acuminate; margins plane, entire or faintly and bluntly notched towards the apex. Nerve strong, about 60 microns wide at the base, excurrent in a rather long, rigid, slightly denticulate point. Upper cells laxly rhomboid-hexagonal, 50-80 microns long and 3-5 x 1; cells towards the base becoming shortly rectangular; those at the margin in 2-3 rows narrowly linear, forming a rather distinct border. Seta 10-18 mm long, flexuose, reddish, arcuate at the apex. Capsule 2.0-2.5 mm long, pendulous, symmetrical, clavate or sometimes pyriform, narrowed at the mouth, light-brown with a darker tapered neck; annulus well developed. Exothecial cells large, subisodiametrical, with sinuose walls. Peristome teeth thin and short (300 microns long), distant, narrowly lanceolate-subulate, pale yellow below, margined, finely papillose on the dorsal face and with a zigzag median line; ventral lamellae weakly developed and only slightly projecting; inner peristome pale; basal membrane low, variably adherent; processes almost equaling the teeth, hyaline, widely gaping on the median line. Cilia one to each process, very short and rudimentary, neither nodose or appendiculate. Operculum conical, mamillate. Male plants separate, shorter, bearing terminal flowers.