Schimper's Campylopus Moss

Records of Campylopus schimperi from Mexico and the Andes are doubtful. The taxonomic value of this species has often been doubted. It was frequently regarded as a variety of C. subulatus, which is similar in several respects. Campylopus schimperi, however, has more elongate, distal laminal cells (1:4 instead of 1:1.5-2) and abaxially nearly smooth costa (ridged in C. subulatus). Furthermore, C. schimperi is a species of arctic-alpine habitats and C. subulatus is found at low elevations. These anatomical as well as ecological differences indicate that C. schimperi should be regarded as a separate species.

Plants 1-3 cm, in compact tufts, light green above, brownish and tomentose below. Leaves 2.5-5 mm, appressed, from a narrow base gradually contracted to an acute, straight, concolorous subula; alar cells little differentiated, only slightly wider than the basal laminal cells; basal laminal cells thin-walled, hyaline, rectangular, at margins narrower, forming a small band; distal laminal cells chlorophyllose, rectangular, ca. 4:1; costa filling ¹/2-²/3 of leaf width, shortly excurrent, in transverse section showing large adaxial hyalocysts, abaxial stereids absent, almost smooth at back. Specialized asexual reproduction frequently by deciduous stem tips. Sporophytes not known in North America.

Plants small to large, 1–5(–8) cm high, green to yellowish brown, in silky, compact tufts. Stems erect or ascending, simple or sparsely branched, radiculose below; central strand present. Leaves erect, stiff, appressed when dry, erect-spreading when moist, 2.5–5.0 mm long, lanceolate, gradually tapered from a narrow or somewhat broad base to a short or long, subulate or subtubulose acumen; lamina extending beyond 1/3 the leaf length; margins plane, entire below, serrulate only at extreme apex; costa relatively narrow, occupying ½ –2/3 the leaf base width, short- to long-excurrent, not ending in a hylaine point, often smooth, sometimes irregularly ridged at back in the upper part, without clearly defined stereids in transverse section, dorsal cells with incrassate walls; upper cells rectangular, moderately thick-walled; basal cells lax, short-rectangular to rectangular, thin-walled, narrower at the margins; alar cells not or sometimes forming auricles, quadrate to hexagonal, not particularly inflated, hyaline or brown, often delicate. Dioicous. Setae slender, flexuose when dry, cygneous when moist, 5–10 mm long, yellowish brown; capsules erect, oblong-ellipsoidal, symmetric, not contracted below the mouth, plicate when dry.

Distribution: China, Japan, Russia, Europe, and North America.

Habitat: on soil, rocks, or bases of trees and rotten wood.

Campylopus subulatus var. schimperi (Milde) Husnot

Campylopus subulatus Schimp. var.. schimperi (Milde) Husn., Muscol. Gall. 43. 1884. Campylopus subulatus ssp. schimperi (Milde) Dix., Stud. Handb. Brit. Mosses 91. 1896. Campylopus alpigena Broth., Akad. Wiss. Wien, Sitzungsber., Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. Abt. 1, 133: 562. 1924. Type. China: Yunnan, Zhong-dian Co., Handel-Mazzetti 4751 (holotype H). Campylopus alpigena var. lamellatus Broth., Symb. Sin. 4: 17. 1929. Type. China: Yunnan, Li-jiang Co., Handel-Mazzetti 1196 (6763) (holotype H). Campylopus handelii Broth., Symb. Sin. 4: 18. 1929. Type. China: Yunnan, Zhong-dian Co., Handel-Mazzetti 7676 (holotype H; isotype MO). Campylopus handelii var. setschwanicus Broth., Symb. Sin. 4: 18. 1929. Type. China: Sichuan, Yan-yuan (Yen-yuen) Co., Handel-Mazzetti 1515, 2641 (syntypes H, MO).

Campylopus schimperi Milde, Crypt. -FL Siid-Tirols (Bot. Zeit
Beil.) 13* 1864.
Campylopus frigidus Lesq. in Porter & Coult. Syn. Fl. Colo. 155, in part. 1874. Leptotrichum tomentosum Kindb. Ottawa Nat. 7: 18. 1893.
Plants in compact tufts, 2-3 cm. high, with stems reddish-tomentose below and yellowishbrown at the summit, bearing few, erect branches: leaves about 3 mm. long, uniformly placed along the stems, closely appressed when dry, more or less spreading when moist, gradually lanceolate from an oblong base, tubulose above, entire on the margin to near the apex, which
usually bears a few somewhat clustered teeth; costa excurrent nearly one half its length, more or less ribbed on the back, about 120 fi wide near the base and extending two thirds across the leaf -base, without stereid-bands, in cross-section showing a row of large, thin-walled cells on the ventral side with 2 or 3 rows of smaller cells beneath; alar cells red to hyaline, the cells just above pale, thin-walled, rectangular, toward the margin very narrow, farther up all more or less oblong to oval and rhomboidal with slightly thickened, scarcely or not pitted walls (; perichaetial leaves half-sheathing, abruptly narrowed to an awl-shaped point : seta pale, 5 mm. long, at first bent downward, finally erect: capsule ovate, furrowed; lid with a beak half as long as the capsule; annulus broad; peristome small, the teeth split to the middle: spores 21—24^ in diameter, finely papillose. — Juratzka, Laubm. 55).
Type locality: Europe.
Distribution: Greenland; St. Paul Island, Alaska; Rocky Mountains of Colorado; also in Europe.