Willia calobolax
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
Terricolous, loosely tufted moss. Leaves 2.0-2.5 mm long, suberect to spreading when dry or moist; lamina oblong, concave, widely acute or obtuse, sometimes slightly contracted in mid-lamina; margins plane and entire; nerve very stout, c.80 microns wide in central portion of lamina, narrowed at the base, excurrent as a stout, often slightly recurved mucro, red, at the apex corrugated or papillose on the dorsal surface. Upper cells 10-15 microns, irregularly isodiametrical, obscure, densely papillose; cells below 10-15 microns wide and 2-3 x 1, smooth, with rather firm walls, scarcely altered at the margin. Fruit unknown.
Distribution
Indigenous. Subantarctic. In New Zealand little known. The first record from the country came from fragments isolated from within a collection of Leptostomum inclinans R.Br.ter. made in 1904 by Leonard Cockayne.
Substrate details
Terricolous on damp peaty ground amongst tussocks (Chionochloa Zotov).
Detailed taxonomy
Genus
Family
Synonyms
Barbula calobolax Müll.Hal.; Tortula pachyneura Dixon; Trichostomum imshaugii (Vitt.) R.H.Zander
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Fruiting
Fruits not known
Other information
Previous conservation statuses
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.
2014 | Threatened – Nationally Critical
2010 | Threatened – Nationally Critical | Qualifiers: DP, RR, S?O
2005 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: S?O