Macromitrium rufipilum Cardot
Creators: name: Thouvenot, Louis
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Bryophyta
Bryopsida
Orthotrichales
Orthotrichaceae
Macromitrium
Macromitrium rufipilum

description: Macromitrium rufipilum Cardot,   (Fig. 2H, 20)  
 Bulletin de l’Herbier Boissier, sér. 2, 8: 169 f. 4 (1908).   
 TYPE. — Balade, Vieillard s.n. (“typus in herb. Boissier et herb. Cardot”). Vieillard 1735 p.p. (lecto-, designated here PC [PC 0096531]!; isolecto-, PC [PC 0096534]!).   
DISTRIBUTION IN NEW CALEDONIA. — Hitherto only collected in two localities of North Province.  
TOTAL RANGE. — Endemic to New Caledonia.  
 SELECTED SPECIMEN. — New Caledonia. Province Nord, Canala, Mt Bogota, altitude 500 m, X.1911, Sarasin 391, PC[PC0737584 (PC)].   DESCRIPTION   Pseudautoicous   
Dwarf male plants on leaf axis of female branches.   Plant   
Medium sized, red brown in herbarium, stems creeping.   Branches   
Thick, medium sized, 5-13 mm long, when dry loosely spiralled, spiky, leaves erect to oblique, flexuous, carinate, the incurved apex unevenly directed, when moist erect to patent, straight.   Branch leaves   
Large, 3-4.5 mm long, 0.5-0.8 mm wide, ligulate, widening slightly downwards, the apices usually obtuse to truncate, some of them shortly acute on the same branch, long aristate, the aristae thin, flexuous, red with hyaline tip, 0.4-1.5 mm long, basal parts of leaves 1/4-1/5 leaf length, costae thin, red, long excurrent, margins papillose crenulate.   Upper cells   
Single-layered, of varying size ranging 10-20 µm long, 10-12 µm wide, thick walled, rounded, ovate to oblong, strongly bulging, the external walls strongly protruding, rounded to high conical with small papillae simple to furcate, the cells roughly aligned, marginal cells smaller in one row, transitional part usually short, transitional cells rectangular, thick walled, walls irregular, porous nodulous, with rounded to high single papillae, lower cells rectangular, elongate to linear, 35-85 µm long, 7-10(-15) µm wide, very thick walled, lumina straight, irregularly narrow 1/3-1/4 cell width, papillae null in basal parts to numerous near transitional parts.   Perichaetia   
Indistinct, perichaetial leaf size and cell ornamentation like the vegetative ones,shape lanceolate,acuminate or acute,long aristate.   Calyptrae   
Naked.   Setae   
Long, 20-25 mm long, thin, flexuous, vaginulae hairless but with a few short paraphyses.   Capsules   
2-2.5 mm long, narrowly oblong, sub-cylindric, smooth, rims plicate, brown, erect.   Peristome   
Absent or reduced to a white ridge.  REMARKS  
 Macromitrium rufipilum is the most distinctive taxon in the Pulchrum group, essentially by the long reddish aristae and the conspicuous spiky and spiralled shape of the branches in dry condition. Other characters such as very long leaves, smooth basal cells, longer capsules allow to separate it from most of the specimens in the Pulchrum group, but they can also be observed in some M. pulchrum var. pulchrum specimens with short aristate and obtuse leaves.   
 Compared to other species with long aristae, M. larrainii, M. humboldtense and M. panduraefolium, M. rufipilum differs from by many significant features (see under these species). The lectotype selected here is included in a pocket coming from the Cardot’s herbarium kept in PC. Ecological conditions are unknown.
description: Published as part of Thouvenot, Louis, 2019, A review of the genus Macromitrium Brid. (Orthotrichaceae, Bryophyta) in New Caledonia, pp. 167-217 in Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (16) on pages 206-207, DOI: 10.5252/cryptogamie-bryologie2019v40a16, http://zenodo.org/record/12215595