Brachythecium curtum

Name: Brachythecium curtum

Common name:  n/a
Family:  Brachytheciaceae

Collection Date: 

Habitat: On moist surface of small rock, near Chagrin River

Location: South Chagrin Reservation

Description: Flattened, light green mat of moss

 Collector: Janie Lawson

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

1b.Plants with stems and leaves, leaves equally spaced around stem…Class III Musci…2

2b. Plants not having many spreading recurved branches and leaves with two types of cells…3

3b. Plants not in reddish brown tufts…Subclass Bryidae

Key to Families/Genera of Bryidae pg. 28

1b. Green plants; if empty cells occur only at base, apex, or margin of leaf...3

3b. Leaves in three or more rows, but sometimes flattened...7

7b. Plants with peristome of more than 4 teeth, gemmae when present not arranged in cup...8

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

9b. Plants not having sessile, inclined, asymmetric, immersed capsule ...10

10b. Plants with or without a distinct stem; capsule when presnt with an operculum; may or may not be ephemeral....17
17b. Plants minute to large, capsules, immersed to exserted; if minute with immersed capsules, growing on rocks, trees, or soil and not ephemeral...20
20b. Plants without photosynthetic growths on leaves…28

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

33b. Stems creeping or branching, usually extensively branched in interwoven mats…139

139b. Leaves smooth, more or less glossy…174

174b. Paraphyllia or multicellular propagula few or none, usually not seen…182

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

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

184a. Costa single, reaching middle of leaf or beyond…185

185b. Terrestrial, on wet or dry substrate, usually not submerged…192

192b. Plants not dendroid…193

193b. Leaves not distinctly bordered…194

194b. Leaves narrowly lanceolate to ovate…196

196b. Leaves ovate to lanceolate, rarely falcate, never circinate…197

197b. Median leaf cells elongate…214

214b. Shoots not complanate-foliate…216

216a. Alar cells clear, thin-walled, inflated…217

217b. Leaves pointed at apex…218

218a. Inflated alar cells broadly decurrent…Brachythecium

Key to Family Brachytheciaceae- Genus Brachythecium
1b. Leaves not plicate…8

8a. Leaves straight, not second…9

9b. Narrow leaves, ovate-lanceolate  or triangular-ovate, to long acuminate; seta smooth or rough…11

11b. Costa not extending more than 2/3 the length of the leaf…13

13a. Branch leaves twisted at apex…Brachythecium Curtum

Plants moderate in size, in loose, shiny, yellow or light green mats, stems ascending or arched, irregularly branched, on various substrates, often in bogs; Minnesota to Nova Scotia south to North Carolina and Tennessee

Links: http://193.166.3.2/pub/sci/bio/life/plants/bryophyta/bryopsida/bryales/brachytheciaceae/brachythecium/index.html