Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Specimen #5 Grain-of-Wheat Moss

Name: Diphyscium folioso
Family: Buxbaumiaceae
Collection Date: Oct. 8, 2011
Habitat: Damp soil and rocks
Location: South Chagrin Reservation, Ohio
Description: 
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:
Introduction key pg. 19
1a. has stem and leaves; erect, ascending, prostrate, or hanging...2
2b. No hayline cells...3
3b. Green...pg. 28. Bryidae

Key to Subclass Bryidae pg. 28
1b. Green, one layer of cells...3
3b. Leaves in three or more rows...7
7b. No isodiometeric cells...8
8a. leaves small, rarely seen...9
9a. Capsule sessile (without seta), immersed in bristle-tipped perichaetial leaves...pg 222 Diphyscium

Diphyscium foliosum
"Plant small, in rigid, dark green, brown, to blackish extensive tufts, capsules nearly, sesile in forests on soil, humus, shaded banks, cliff, rock walls of ravines and gorges, wide spread in eastern America" (Conrad 222).


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Specimen #4 Liverwort

Figure 1. Thalloid liverwort growing damp  rock wall.
Figure 2. Close up of thalloid liverwort with clearly visible air pores.
Figure 3. Air pores of thalloid liverwort.
Figure 4. Clear rhizoids of thalloid liverwort.
Name: Conocephalum
Family:  Conocephalaceae
Collection Date: Sept. 26, 2011
Habitat: Damp soil and rocks
Location: South Chagrin Reservation, Ohio
Description:Branching thalloid, dark green to green-yellow with polygon shaped divisions across the upper surface.  One air pore per polygonal section, sitting atop a mound of clear cells.  Rhizoids clear.  Growing vertically on the face of a damp rock wall. 
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:
Introduction key pg. 19
1b. Plant thalloid...4
4b. More than one chloroplast per cell...5
5a. Strongly flattened, thalloid, without distinction between stem and leaf...6
6a. Opaque thallus...pg 239 Marchantiales

Key to Order Marchantiales pg. 239
1a. Air pores visible without a lense...8
8b. Thalli without gammae and without marginal scales on underside...10
10a. Air pore on low mound of colorless cells...pg 283 Conocephalum


"Thalli pale to dark green above, purplish below, 1-2 cm wide, up to 20com long, dichotomously branching, upper surface with distinct polygonal areas, pores distinct, on moist rocks and soil, wide spread in North America" (Conrad 283).


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Specimen #3 Atrichum Moss

Figure 1. Maturing operculate capsule with calyptra. 

Figure 2. Close up of leaf (with costa and lamellae) of Atrichum crispum.

Name: Atrichum crispum Atrichum Moss 
Family:  Polytrichaceae
Collection Date: Oct. 8, 2011
Habitat: Damp soil
Location: Hiram College Field Station woods
Description: Dark green, well defined leaves with costa, spiraling around the stem.  Sporophyte capsule operculate, maturing to a brown-red color.  Found in a large tuft on soil at the base of a tree.
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:
Introduction key pg. 19
1a. has stem and leaves; erect, ascending, prostrate, or hanging...2
2b. No hayline cells...3
3b. Green...pg. 28. Bryidae

Key to Subclass Bryidae pg. 28
1b. Green, one layer of cells...3
3b. Leaves in three or more rows...7
7b. No isodiometeric cells...8
8b. Leaves well developed and persistent...9
9b. Has a seta...10
10b. Distinct stem; has operculum...17
17b. Large plant...20
20a. Lamellae on costa...21
21b. Has lamallae...23
23b. Leaves toothed on margin; not oval....24
24a. Calyptra smooth...25
25b. No cilia on leaf; bordered with long narrow cells...pg 223 Atrichum

Key to Genera Atrichum pg. 223
1b. levaes broad; 0-6 lamallae...2
2a. leaves 1.5m wide or more; not collenchymatous...3
3a. 0-3 lamellae; striate papillae on margins...Atrichum crispum

"Plants small to moderatly robust, in dull yellowish-green tufts on soil in mountains, Ontario to Quebec and Nova Scotia south to Iowa, Tennessee to Florida" (Conrad 224).

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Specimen #2 Hornwort

Figure 1. Phaeoceros growing on rock wall.

Figure 2. Phaeoceros  with mature sporophyte.
Name: Phaeoceros
Family: Notothyladaceae
Collection Date: Sept. , 2011
Habitat: Terrestrial; growing on rocks and soil; damp areas
Location: South Chagrin Reservation, Ohio
Description: Lobed, thalloid, slick/slimy, dark green appearance with hornlike sporophytes growing directly from the thallus.
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:
Introduction key pg. 19
1b. Plants thalloid...4
4a. Thalloid with one chloroplast per cell...pg 230 Anthocerotae

Key to Family Anthocerotae pg. 230
1a. capsule erect, 1-3cm long, becoming black after splitting...2
2? spores yellow...Phaeoceros

"Thallus dark green, .5-3cm in diameter, deeply lobed, on moist soil and rocks, widespread in North America" (Conrad 231). 

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Specimen #1 The Delicate Fern Moss

Figure 3. Close up of Thuidium delicatulum

Figure 2. Thuidium delicatulum seta and capsule with operculum.

Figure 4. Peristome teeth of Thuidium delicatulum

Name: Thuidium delicatulum The Delicate Fern Moss
Family: Thuidiaceae
Collection Date: Sept. 26, 2011
Habitat: Terrestrial moss found on rocks, soil, logs, stumps, and the bases of trees
Location: Hiram College Field Station woods
Description: Thick, yellow-green, fern-like, mesh-work of branched stems growing on the roots of a tree.
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:
Introduction key pg. 19
1a. has stem and leaves; erect, ascending, prostrate, or hanging...2
2b. No hayline cells...3
3b. Green...pg. 28. Order Bryidae

Key to Families/Genera Bryidae pg. 28
1b. Green, one layer of cells...3
3b. Leaves in three or more rows...7
7b. No isodiometeric cells...8
8b. Leaves well developed and persistent...9
9b. Has a seta...10
10b. Distinct stem; has operculum...17
17b. Large plant...20
20b. Costa but no lamellae...28
28b. ….................................33
33b. ….................................139
139a. Papillose...140
140b. Papillae located over cell cavity...150
150b. Not fern-like erect or dendroid...152
152b. Leaves not oval...153
153b. One costa to the middle of leaves in some leaves...159
159b. Not complanate...160
160b. Capsule exserted beyond perichaetial leaves...161
161b. Papillae not forming single row over center of cells...163
163b. Small papillae; often more than one on a cell...164
164b. Paraphyllia numerous, filamentous, mostly branched...172
172b. Paraphyllia not attached to leaves...173
173a. Apical cell of branch leaves crowned with 2-4 papillae...pg 174 Thuidium

Key to Genera Thuidium pg 174
1b. large plants...4
4b stems 2-3 pinnate, spreading or curved-ascending...5
5b. stem leaves erect; no cilia on perichaetial leaves...6
6a. stem leaves not ending in a capillary point; perichaetial leaves ciliate...7
7a. stems regularly bi- or tripinnately branched; inner perichaectial ending in a hair point...Thuidium delicatulum

"Plants in robust green or yellow-green mats, stem 3-8cm spreading or arched-ascending, on soil humus, decaying wood, rocks or tree bases, in moist areas, Alaska to Labrador south to Arizona, in the east to the Gulf States."  (Conrad 176).

Links:
http://www.ohio.edu/plantbio/vislab/moss/byrd.htm
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