Speciemen #1Neckera complanta

                                                        Fig. 1. Neckera complanta


Name: Neckera complanta

Family: Neckaraceae

Collection Date: 05/10/2011

Habitat: rocks and trunks of trees

Location: West woods

Description: "grows on shaded, rather base-rich rocks, walls, and less frequently on masonry. It is at least equally frequent on bark at the base of trees and on coppice stools in old hedgerows and woodlands in eastern England, and colonizes shrubs in the west. It is rare in dry, calcareous turf." (Preston 682)

Collector: Getachew Hatsey

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. Plants with stems and leaves; leaves spaced equally around the stem or...leaf cells elongate and isodiametric...rhizoids multicellular..sporophyte long lived..........................2

2b. Plants not as above...................3

3b. plants not as above....................(p.28) Subclass 3. BRYDAE.

key to Genera  Bryidae

1b. Green plants...empty cells at the base, apex, or margin of leaf.............3

3b. Leaves inserted in three or more rows, plant sometimes strongly flattened.........7

7b. plants with a peristome of more than 4 teeth or peristome teeth absent.........8

8b. Leaves well developed and persistent.............9

9b. Capsule and leaves not as above...................10

10b. Plants with a distinct stem .............capsule present with operculum......17

17b. plants large, capsule exserted; grows on trees.........20

20b. leaves without such outgrowth; sometimes with deciduous gemmae...............28

28b. Peristome when present single or double... growing on various substrates but not restricted to rich organic soil, bones, or other organic matter..........33

33b. stems creeping and branched, archegonia, antheridia, and sporophyte lateral.......139

139b. leaves smooth; more or less glossy...............174

174b. Paraphyllia or multicellular propagula few or none, usually not seen, if numerous, then plants complanate........182

182b. Costa single, and strong to short and/or double to absent.............................183

183b. Costa single, reaching the middle of the leaf or beyond to lacking, or short and/or double..........................184

184b. Costa lacking, or short and/ or double.....................230

230b. Plants terrestrial, not in areas where subject to long periods of submergence inn flowing water..................231

231b. Median leaf cells long to very long, 5-20:1........................................239

239b. Leaves not as above; gemmae if present, not forming clusters at the tip of the shoots...............240

240b. Leaves with small quadrate alar cells or alar cells slightly inflated and hyaline..............................252

252b. Leaves with little alar cells...........260

260b. Leaves complanate-foliate or falcate-secund with branches hooked at tip.......263

263b. Leaves Complanate-foliate, not falcate.................................264

264b. Leaves Ovate to oblong; cells thick walled, linear-flexuose.............................(p.160) Neckera

key to Family Neckeraceae

1a. Leaves rounded and usually apiculate at the apex, not strongly undulate............................Neckera complanta

Plants 2-4 cm long, stems complanate-foliate, green to pale green, in loose mats, on rocks and trunks of trees, labrador, southern Canada south to Tennessee, North Carolina and in Arkansas.

Links:

http://www.bbsfieldguide.org.uk/content/neckera-complanata
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=NECO8
http://www.azoresbioportal.angra.uac.pt/listagens.php?lang=en&sstr=3&id=C00319