Pyrrhobryum paramattense

Detailed description

Acrocarpous, dioicous, yellow-green to dark green, 50–100 mm tall. Stems dark reddish brown, simple, sparingly branched; lower stems bare, immature stems with distant scale leaves. Leaves sparse, crisped when dry, spreading when moist, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, up to 7.0 × 0.4 mm, acuminate; margin plane, denticulate in upper-half with clear sharp twinned teeth, bordered by 2–3 rows of cells, bistratose below, multistratose above; costa broad, prominent, brownish, percurrent with sharp twinned teeth above, 150 µm wide at base; costal cells quadrate, rounded or slightly rectangular (14 × 8 µm); marginal cells ± quadrate, 8 µm. Rhizoides near bases, red to brownish, weakly papillose to 0.8 mm long, to 25 µm wide; cells to 100 µm long, indistinct. Perigonia c. 6, bud-like, clustered at base of stems. Perigonial leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, up to 1.4 × 0.6 mm, shouldered; base straight, entire; apex sharply acuminate, serrate: nerve reddish-brown, prominent, to 60 µm wide at base; costal cells narrowly rectangular, 30–80 × 4–9 µm. Laminal apical cells ± thick-walled, very variable in shape and size, linear to irregularly rectangular to 30 x 5 µm; medial cells thin-walled, rectangular to hexagonal, to 40 × 10 µm; marginal; cells longer, rectangular to 70 × 12 µm, basal cells irregularly rectangular to 80 × 12 µm. Antheridia up to 12 per perigonium, to 480 × 120 µm; stalk to 40 µm long; paraphyses clear, ± same length as antheridia, to 20 µm wide; cells rectangular, to 120 µm long. Perichaetia numerous, basal or on short lateral basal branches. Perichaetial leaves broadly lanceolate to 4.7 × 0.5 mm, gradually tapering to long, serrate subulae; upper cells thick-walled, quadrate, to 10 µm; medial cells thick-walled, rectangular, to 18–20 × 5 µm; basal cells thin-walled, rectangular, to 30 × 4 µm, broader absent. Archegonia c. 30 per perichaetium, 560 × 40 µm; paraphyses clear, to 600 × 20 µm; cells to 60 µm long. Calyptra c. 3 mm long, smooth, brown. Seta reddish yellow, 10–50 mm long, erect to curved. Capsule dark red, to 3 mm long, inclined, asymmetrical, clavate-curved, smooth; annulus present. Operculum short, obliquely-rostrate; 600-700 µm long, striate below, finely papillose above; endostome segments fragile, as long as teeth, weakly papillose; basal membranes high; cilia shorter, 1–2. Spores 12–18 µm, finely papillose to smooth.