Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Sterile Pleuridium subulatum or Bruchia flexuosa?

I think this is sterile Pleuridium subulatum, this is a real challenge to ID with tiny leaves and none of the distinctive immersed sporophytes typical of Plueridium .  It could also be Bruchia flexuosa with the same size and habitat and the pappilose costa.  The key first took me to Bruchia flexuosa


Whole leaf 1.2 x .25mm 

Smaller leaf is 1 x .20mm

leaves were hard to open up

costa is nearly as long as the leaf

Cells are smooth in spite of costa looking pappilose

Cells were 20-60 x 5-8 um

Stem magnified 100X

Protonema magnified 100X

Male plant in leaf axil 100X

David Wagner thinks this might be in infection

Protonema
Pappilose awn?  What is this?

Look at that leaf tip "L" perhaps this is my moss..

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