Ectropothecium

Ectropothecium zollingeri, from here.
Belongs within: Hypnales.

Ectropothecium is a large and complex genus of about 200 species of mosses found around the world, with most species growing in water or completely waterlogged soil. Ectropothecium species possess one or a few inflated, hyaline alar cells, relatively elongate, slender setae, and very small, ovoid capsules that are horizontal to inclined and strongly constricted below the mouth when dry; they differ from members of the similar genus Hypnum in lacking a group of coloured alar cells (Moss Flora of China).

See also: Mosses: not as simple as you think (Taxon of the Week: Ectropothecium).

Characters (from Wu et al. 2005): Plants slender to rather robust, yellowish green or brownish green, glossy or not glossy. Stems prostrate, sometimes pendulous, ascending or erect when in dense mats, radiculose, simple or pinnately branched, branches ascending, usually complanate; paraphyllia absent, pseudoparaphyllia filamentous or lanceolate to foliose. Stem leaves and branch leaves heteromorphic, or more or less similar, ovate- or obovate-lanceolate, somewhat asymmetric, often falcate-secund, not decurrent at base, usually dorsal, ventral, and lateral leaves differentiated; costae double, short, very weak, or distinct; leaf cells linear, sometimes distinctly prorate; basal cells shorter and broader; alar cells few, small, quadrate or shortly rectangular, usually not particularly inflated, but with one or two cells clearly distinct. Autoicous or dioicous. Inner perichaetial leaves broadly lanceolate, gradually acuminate or suddenly narrowed to a slender acumen. Setae elongate; capsules horizontal to inclined, small to very small, ovoid to urceolate or shortly cylindrical, often constricted below the mouth when dry; exothecial cells sometimes mammillose; opercula inflated, conic, apiculate to shortly rostrate; annuli differentiated; peristome double; exostome teeth narrowly lanceolate, not bordered, cross-striate on the outer surface, trabeculate on the inner surface; endostome segments linear-lanceolate, with a high basal membrane and 2–4 cilia. Calyptrae cucullate, smooth, sometimes hairy. Spores small, usually smooth.

<==Ectropothecium Mitt. 1868 SK02
    |--E. buitenzorgii N02
    |--E. condensatum Broth. & Watts 1912 SK02
    |--E. cyperoides N02
    |--E. howeanum Broth. & Watts 1915 SK02
    |--E. leptochaeton J87
    |--E. leucochlorum (Hampe) Broth. 1908 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--E. moritzii Jaeger 1879 SK02
    |--E. novae-valesiae (Broth.) Ireland 1992 [=Plagiothecium novae-valesiae Broth. 1916] SK02
    |--E. riparioides Bartram 1952 SK02
    |--E. sandwichense (Hooker & Arnott) Mitt. 1873 [=Hypnum sandwichense] SK02
    |--E. sodale (Sull.) Mitt. 1868 SK02
    |--E. sydneyense Dixon 1950 SK02
    |--E. umbilicatum (Müll.Hal.) Paris 1904 [=Hypnum umbilicatum] SK02
    |    |--E. u. var. umbilicatum SK02
    |    `--E. u. var. protractum (Müll.Hal.) Paris 1904 [=Hypnum umbilicatum var. protractum] SK02
    `--E. zollingeri (Müll.Hal.) Jaeger 1880 (see below for synonymy) SK02

Nomina nuda: Ectropothecium leptomyurum Paris 1900 [=Cupressina leptomyura Paris 1900] SK02
             Ectropothecium spirifolium Dusén 1903 D03

Ectropothecium leucochlorum (Hampe) Broth. 1908 [=Drepanohypnum leucochlorum, Hypnum leucochlorum, Stereodon leucochlorus; incl. Plagiothecium howeanum Jaeger 1878 (n. n.), Hypnum howeanum (n. n.), P. howei (n. n.)] SK02

Ectropothecium zollingeri (Müll.Hal.) Jaeger 1880 [incl. E. serrifolium, Glossadelphus serrifolius (Broth. & Watts) Broth. 1925] SK02

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[D03] Dusén, P. 1903. The vegetation of western Patagonia. In Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-1899, vol. 8 – Botany (W. B. Scott, ed.) pp. 1-34. The University: Princeton (New Jersey).

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum – Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1-136.

[N02] Negi, H. R. 2002. Abundance and diversity of moss communities of Chopta-Tunganath in the Garhwal Himalaya. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 418-433.

[SK02] Streimann, H., & N. Klazenga. 2002. Catalogue of Australian Mosses. Flora of Australia Supplementary Series 17. Australian Biological Resources Study: Canberra.

Wu P.-C., M. R. Crosby & S. He. 2005. Sematophyllaceae–Polytrichaceae. In: He, S. (ed.) Moss Flora of China. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden.