Status: Native
Synonyms:
None
Orthotrichum pycnophyllum is easy to recognize in New Mexico because the stems and the individual clumps are
huge compared to other plants in the genus here. The stems are 1-5cm long. The plant shown in these photos was attached
to a Gambel Oak at one narrow point less than one square cm in area. It popped off the host oak easily and as a result I didn't get a
pic of it on the host! The leaves are acute, and some seem to be nearly awned but the apex is not hyaline as in O. diaphanum but rather
orange-brown. Some of the leaves display very elongate nodular basal cells as shown here, but the basal cells of other leaves are just somewhat thick-walled and long rectangular. There is one central conical papilla per cell. The calyptra is hairy. The stomata are superficial on the capsules. According the the FNA treatment, there is quite a bit of variation in many of the character traits of this moss including the peristome. We found O. pycnophyllum towering over O. obtusifolium on a Gambel Oak at high elevation in Oak-Mixed Conifer forest.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Orthotrichum pycnophyllum, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Otero Cty., Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento Mtns., S of Cloudcroft, Russia Cyn Rd. on Gambel Oak 100 yds off of Sunspot Rd., July 24, 2020
Orthotrichum pycnophyllum, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Otero Cty., Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento Mtns., S of Cloudcroft, Russia Cyn Rd. on Gambel Oak 100 yds off of Sunspot Rd., July 24, 2020
Orthotrichum pycnophyllum, photomicrograph of superficial stoma, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Otero Cty., Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento Mtns., S of Cloudcroft, Russia Cyn Rd. on Gambel Oak 100 yds off of Sunspot Rd., July 24, 2020
Orthotrichum pycnophyllum, photomicrograph of laminal cells with one conical papilla, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Otero Cty., Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento Mtns., S of Cloudcroft, Russia Cyn Rd. on Gambel Oak 100 yds off of Sunspot Rd., July 24, 2020
Orthotrichum pycnophyllum, photomicrograph of leaf base with nodulose elongate cells, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Otero Cty., Lincoln National Forest, Sacramento Mtns., S of Cloudcroft, Russia Cyn Rd. on Gambel Oak 100 yds off of Sunspot Rd., July 24, 2020
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