Barbula

Barbula crinita, from here.

Belongs within: Pottiaceae.

Barbula is a genus of about 200 mosses found in temperate parts of the world. Members of the genus have axillary hairs that are almost always entirely composed of hyaline cells; leaves that are adaxially usually deeply grooved along the costa; distal laminal cell papillae that are rough, knobby, obscuring the lumens, and protuberant along the distal laminal margins; costae that are usually excurrent as a sharp mucro or an apiculus of one or more clear cells; and peristomes that are long and twisted (R. H. Zander). A number of species previously included in Barbula have been separated as the genus Didymodon. Notable species include B. unguiculata, common in eastern North America and Europe, with more or less obtuse leaves with plane margins and inconspicuous perichaetial leaves (Dixon 1924).

Characters (from R. H. Zander): Plants loosely cespitose or forming cushions, yellowish brown, brown or blackish distally, yellowish brown to reddish brown proximally. Stems short to elongate, to 2(-3.5) cm; hyalodermis rarely present, sclerodermis present, central strand present; axillary hairs short to elongate, all cells almost always hyaline. Leaves appressed incurved to weakly spreading, often contorted or twisted about stem, occasionally catenulate when dry, spreading when moist; ligulate or broadly lanceolate to long-triangular, adaxial surface usually deeply grooved along costa, occasionally broadly concave; base weakly differentiated to broadened and somewhat sheathing, proximal margins sometimes narrowly decurrent; margins usually recurved in proximal 1/2-2/3, occasionally plane throughout, entire or occasionally weakly denticulate near apex, lamina 1-stratose; apex rounded to obtusely acute, usually mucronate, occasionally entire or apiculate; costa percurrent to shortly excurrent as a sharp mucro, occasionally ending a few cells before the apex, adaxial outgrowths absent, adaxial cells elongate, occasionally quadrate to short-rectangular, in 2-3(-5) rows; transverse section ovate to semicircular, adaxial epidermis differentiated, adaxial stereid band usually present, usually small, guide cells 2-4 in 1 layer, hydroid strand occasionally present, abaxial stereid band present, usually strong, semi-lunar in sectional shape, abaxial epidermis usually present but weakly differentiated; proximal cells differentiated across leaf or reaching higher medially or occasionally marginally, rectangular, usually little wider than the distal cells, 3-5:1, walls of proximal cells thin to evenly thickened; distal medial cells quadrate, usually 1:1, 1-stratose; papillae hollow or solid, multiplex to 2-fid, 2-3 per lumen, occasionally simple or absent, cell walls thin to evenly thickened, superficially bulging on both free sides. Specialized asexual reproduction by tubers borne on proximal rhizoids or gemmae borne on axillary stalks. Sexual condition dioicous or possibly sometimes rhizautoicous. Perichaetia terminal, interior leaves sometimes strongly sheathing, little differentiated or ovate to long-lanceolate, laminal cells usually rhomboid in proximal 1/2-3/4. Seta 0.5-2.5 cm. Capsule stegocarpous, theca ovate to longly cylindric, annulus weakly differentiated to strong, of 1-3 rows of vesiculose cells, sometimes revoluble or deciduous in pieces; operculum usually long-conic; peristome teeth of 32 narrow rami, filamentous to narrowly triangular, usually strongly twisted counterclockwise. Calyptra cucullate. Spores mostly 8-12 µm. KOH laminal color reaction yellow, occasionally yellowish orange.

<==Barbula Hedw. 1801 SK02
    |--B. acrophylla Müll.Hal. 1898 SK02
    |--B. alpigena [=Didymodon alpigenus] D24
    |--B. ‘amoena’ Müll.Hal. 1898 (preoc.) SK02
    |--B. andersonii D03
    |--B. antarctica D03
    |--B. arenae D03
    |--B. bescherellei J87
    |--B. botelligera D24
    |--B. calycina Schwägr. 1823 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--B. chrysopila D03
    |--B. conotricha D03
    |    |--B. c. var. conotricha D03
    |    `--B. c. var. fagicola D03
    |--B. consanguinea (Thwaites & Mitt.) Jaeger 1880 SK02
    |--B. constricta N02
    |--B. convoluta Hedw. 1801 SK02
    |    |--B. c. var. convoluta D24
    |    `--B. c. var. sardoa [incl. Barbula commutata, Trichostomum undatum] D24
    |--B. cordata [=Didymodon cordatus] D24
    |--B. crinita Schultz 1823 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--B. crispatula D03
    |--B. cylindrangia Müll.Hal. 1898 SK02
    |--B. cylindrica [=Zygotrichia cylindrica] D24
    |--B. densifolia D03
    |--B. ehrenbergii (Lorentz) Fleischer 1901 SK02
    |--B. eroso-denticulata N02
    |--B. fallax D24
    |    |--B. f. var. fallax D24
    |    `--B. f. var. brevifolia [=Tortula brevifolia] D24
    |--B. flagellaris D03
    |--B. fuegiana D03
    |--B. geminata Müll.Hal. 1901 SK02
    |--B. glauca [=Didymodon glaucus] D24
    |--B. gracilis [incl. B. acuta] D24
    |--B. hampeana Paris 1894 [=B. brachyphylla (preoc.), Tortula brachyphylla] SK02
    |--B. hastata N02
    |--B. hispaniolensis J87
    |--B. hornschuchiana Schultz 1824 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--B. icmadophila D24
    |--B. ‘incerta’ Dixon 1941 (preoc.) SK02
    |--B. indica (Hooker) Spreng. 1824 SK02
    |--B. inflexa B57
    |--B. lechleri D03
    |--B. lurida [=Didymodon luridus] D24
    |--B. luteola (Mitt.) Paris ex Catcheside 1980 [=Tortula luteola; incl. B. pungens, T. pungens (nom. illeg.)] SK02
    |--B. nicholsoni D24
    |--B. patagonica D03
    |--B. perrubiginosa Dusén 1903 D03
    |--B. pusilla D03
    |--B. recurvifolia [=Tortula fallax var. recurvifolia; incl. B. reflexa] D24
    |--B. revoluta [=Tortula revoluta] D24
    |--B. rigidula [=Didymodon rigidulus, Trichostomum rigidulum; incl. T. rigidulum var. densum] D24
    |--B. sinuosa [=Dicranella sinuosa, Didymodon sinuosus] D24
    |--B. spadicea [incl. Limneria viridula] D24
    |--B. speirostega Müll.Hal. 1898 SK02
    |--B. subcalycina Müll.Hal. 1868 (see below for synonymy) SK02
    |--B. subteretiuscula J87
    |--B. tophacea [=Trichostomum tophaceum] D24
    |    |  i. s.: B. tophacea f. luxurians D24
    |    |--B. t. var. tophacea D24
    |    |--B. t. var. acutifolia D24
    |    `--B. t. var. brevifolia non B. fallax var. brevifolia D24
    |--B. unguiculata Hedw. 1801 SK02 [=Bryum unguiculatum D24]
    |    |--B. u. var. unguiculata D24
    |    `--B. u. var. cuspidata D24
    `--B. vinealis [=B. cylindrica var. vinealis; incl. B. viridescens] D24

Nomina nuda: Barbula calycina var. attenuata Watts & Whitel. 1902 SK02
             Barbula commersonii Mitt. ex Muell. 1880 [=Tortula commersonii Paris 1906] SK02
             Barbula flavido-pilosa Dusén 1903 D03
             Barbula microphylla Watts & Whitel. 1902 SK02
             Barbula micro-runcinata Dusén 1903 D03
             Barbula oedineura Müll.Hal. ex Watts & Whitelegge 1902 [=Tortula oedineura Watts & Whitel. 1902] SK02
             Barbula pseudopilifera var. scabrinervis Broth. & Watts 1912 SK02

Barbula calycina Schwägr. 1823 [=Tortella calycina, Tortula calycina; incl. Encalypta aristata, Pyramitrium aristatum, E. cristata (l. c.), Barbula aristatula, Tortula aristatula, B. calycina var. brevicaulis (n. n.), Tortula calycina var. brevicaulis (nom. inv.)] SK02

Barbula crinita Schultz 1823 [=Pseudocrossidium crinitum (Schultz) Zander 1993; incl. Tortula chlorotricha, Barbula chlorotricha (Broth. & Geh.) Paris 1894, T. flavinervis, B. pseudopilifera var. obscura (Dixon) Sainsbury 1952, Pseudocrossidium crinitum var. obscurum, T. flavinervis var. parviretes, T. hystrichosa (nom. inv.), Barbula pseudopilifera, T. pseudopilifera, B. tasmanica, T. tasmanica] SK02

Barbula hornschuchiana Schultz 1824 [=Pseudocrossidium hornschuchianum (Schultz) Zander 1979, Tortula hornschuchiana; incl. Desmatodon adustus, T. adusta, Barbula subspiralis, T. subspiralis] SK02

Barbula subcalycina Müll.Hal. 1868 [=Tortula subcalycina; incl. B. angusticaulis Müll.Hal. 1902 (nom. inv.), Tortella angusticaulis Müll.Hal. ex Watts & Whitel. 1902 (n. n.), B. austrounguiculata Müll.Hal. 1901 (n. n.)] SK02

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B57] Bartram, E. B. 1957. Additional Fijian mosses, III. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 46 (12): 392–396.

[D24] Dixon, H. N. 1924. The Student's Handbook of British Mosses 3rd ed. V. V. Sumfield: Eastbourne.

[D03] Dusén, P. 1903. Patagonian and Fuegian mosses. In: Scott, W. B. (ed.) Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896–1899 vol. 8. Botany pp. 63–126. 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.

Last updated: 18 December 2017.