Hypnaceae

Diagnosis: Plants smallish to medium-sized. Stems often fragile. Stem leaves triangular, 0.8-1.2 mm long, gradually acuminate; margins entire to serrulate, plane; cells long-hexagonal, broad, 4-6:1, becoming broader and rectangular toward the insertion. Dorsal and lateral branch leaves ovate to broadly oblong-lanceolate, 0.7-0.95 mm long, apiculate to gradually acuminate; margins entire to serrulate, plane; cells lax, hexagonal to long-hexagonal, 1-3.5:1, smooth, becoming shorter to rectangular toward the insertion; ventral leaves sometimes differentiated, if so, then narrower, longer acuminate, and with narrower, longer cells, 1-8:1. Setae 1.2-2 cm long; capsule symmetric to asymmetric, ca. 1 mm long. Spores 11-14 µm diameter.

Distribution: Central America; Caibbean; Western and Northern South America

Ecology: Vesicularia vesicularis grows on a wide range of moist substrates from limestone and mud to rotting logs

Notes: It is an extremely variable taxon with several varieties recognized although only two, var. vesicularis and var. rutilans (Bridel) W. R. Buck, are known from our area. Buck (1998), although recognizing both of the above varieties, was not convinced of their biological significance and expressed that they may be no more than ecological modifications to different habitats.

Basionym: Hypnum vesiculare Schwägr.

Basionym Citation: Species Muscorum Frondosorum, Supplementum Secundum 2(2): 167. 199. 1827.

Other Published Figures: W. R. Buck. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Plate 122 (6-12).