Symphysodontella cylindracea
Common names
moss
Biostatus
Native
Current conservation status
This is the first complete assessment of all known species of mosses found in the wild in Aotearoa New Zealand with a total of 560 species being assessed. The conservation status of mosses, published in the NZTCS database, replaces all previous assessments of mosses. Data supporting the 2025 NZTCS assessment of mosses has been published on the NZTCS database at https://nztcs.org.nz/reports/1155.
Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2025 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: DPR
Category
Non-vascular
Structural class
Mosses
Detailed description
Pale green to pinkish-green lustrous moss. Corticolous or terricolous. Secondary stems rigid, ± frondose from a short wiry stipe up to 50 mm long (rarely longer). Leaves oblong-ovate, deeply concave, abruptly short-acuminate; margins entire, broadly inflexed above; costa faint, variable, short and double or unequally forked within one branch extending nearly to mid leaf; cells narrowly linear, smooth, with firm, pale walls, short, porose, and golden brown across insertion. Perichaetial leaves erect. Seta very short; capsule immersed, cylindrical, narrowed towards mouth, urn up to 3 mm long; peristome teeth pale yellow, pellucid, equidistant, smooth, with a median furrow, deeply inserted; calyptra cucullate; spores papillose (n/b Fruiting material not seen in the Kermadec Islands specimen).
Distribution
Indigenous. New Zealand: Kermadec Islands (Raoul Island). Widespread in the Pacific from about the Philippines southeast to about the Cooks and Tahiti
Habitat
The sole Kermadec Island gathering came from the ‘wet’ forest type on Raoul Island where it was collected from the basal trunk of a hutu (Ascarina lucida var. lanceolata) lying amongst cyclone-toppled branches of Kermadec pohutukawa (Metrosideros kermadecensis). This species is apparently a common moss of forested islands throughout the Pacific and it usually grows on exposed tree roots, trunks and branches in closed forest situations. On Raoul Island the species has a superficial similarity to another moss genus Camptochaete two species of which are known from there, so it is possible that it has been overlooked.
Substrate details
Corticolous on hutu (Ascarina lucida var. lanceolata).
Threats
Known only from a single gathering made from Raoul Island during the May 2011 Kermadec Biodiscovery Expedition. That specimen was collected from the basal trunk of a hutu (Ascarina lucida var. lanceolata) lying amongst cyclone-toppled branches of Kermadec pohutukawa (Metrosideros kermadecensis) on the south-eastern side of the island near Mahoe. As no further specimens were collected at this stage it seems best to assign this species a threat assessment of ‘Data Deficient’.
Detailed taxonomy
Genus
Family
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Fruiting
Fruiting material not seen in the Kermadec Islands specimen
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Bartram, E.D. 1939: Mosses of the Philippines. The Philipine Journal of Science 68: 1-437.
Attribution
Fact Sheet Prepared for NZPCN by: P.J. de Lange 13 October 2011. Description adapted from Bartram (1939)
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Symphysodontella cylindracea Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/symphysodontella-cylindracea/ (Date website was queried)