Elegant Fissidens Moss

The obscure, pluripapillose lamina cells and leaf apex that terminates in a single, hyaline, sharply pointed cell distinguish Fissidens elegans. The limbidium is quite variable, occurring on the vaginant laminae of most leaves of perichaetial stems to being absent from the leaves of infertile stems. The species is close to F. pallidinervis (see discussion under 26). H. A. Crum and L.E. Anderson (1981) commented on a collection that was possibly made in Lafayette, Wisconsin, a site quite distant from the normal distribution of this species in North America.

Plants to 5.5 × 2 mm. Stem unbranched and branched; axillary hyaline nodules absent; central strand weak. Leaves as many as 12 pairs, oblong to lanceolate, acute to obtuse-apiculate, most ending in a clear, sharp cell, to 1.8 × 0.4 mm; dorsal lamina narrowed or rounded proximally, ending at or before insertion, not decurrent; vaginant laminae ¹/2-²/3 leaf length, unequal, minor lamina ending near margin; margin serrulate, limbate and entire to remotely denticulate on proximal ²/3 or less of vaginant laminae of most leaves of perichaetial stems, often absent from leaves of infertile stems, limbidium intralaminal in part or completely, limbidial cells 1-stratose; costa ending 2-4 cells before apex or percurrent, ending in apiculus, infrequently short-excurrent, bryoides-type; lamina cells 1-stratose, pluripapillose, obscure, firm-walled, rounded-hexagonal, 5-8 µm, twice as deep as wide. Sexual condition rhizautoicous and gonioautoicous. Sporophytes 1 per perichaetium. Seta to 5 mm. Capsule theca exserted, erect, radially symmetric, to 0.8 mm; peristome scariosus-type; operculum to 0.5 mm. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, to 0.6 mm. Spores 9-13 µm.

Fissidens ravenelii Sullivant

Fissidens elegans Brid. Muse. Recent. Suppl
1: 167. 1806.
Skitopkyllum elegans Pylaie, Jour, de Bot. Desv. II. 4: 152. 1814. Fissidens interntedius C. Miill. I^innaea 21: 181. 1848. Fissidens cuspidulatus SuU. Proc. Am. Acad. 5: 274. 1861. Conomitrium hemiloma Besch. Rev. Bryol. 18: 52. 1891. Fissidens fiavifrons Besch. Rev. Bryol. 18: 54. 1891. Fissidens Hancockiana Steere, Rep. Hancock Exp. 3*: 2. 1936. Fissidens Willisiae E. Bartr.; B. Willis, Bryologist 42: 152. 1939.
Plants in scattered cushions; stems slender, erect or decumbent, usually simple, rarely proliferous from old stems, the fertile ones 1-5 mm. with 3-10 pairs of leaves, the sterile sometimes 1 cm. high with 15-25; leaves generally distant, not crowded or overlapping, often somewhat secund at apex when dry, 1 X 0.25 mm., generally all but the very lowest bordered on the vaginant laminae, the costa stout, clear, percurrent to very shortly excurrent into a short sharp point, rarely ending sUghtly below the apex in a few large clear cells, in cross section with large guides and 2 stereid bands; vaginant laminae extending about two-thirds the length of the leaf, unequal and oblique, the border often toothed, the margins plane, crenulate with projecting cell-angles, often with 2 papillae; upper leaf-cells obscure, irregularly polygonal, dz 5 ^ in diameter with 1-2 papillae, those of the vaginant laminae hexagonal to short-rectangular, up to 10 ju, with 2-4 papillae on the outer surface only; dorsal lamina extending nearly or quite to base, ending abruptly, papillose on both surfaces; perichaetial leaves somewhat longer with vaginant laminae very unequal, sometimes one side narrowed to the costa; dioicous or autoicous, the antheridia either terminal on full-sized plants or in small buds from lateral innovatioiis on old plants or from radicles; sporophyte terminal; seta erect or bent at base, up to 4-5 mm. long, sometimes 2 from the same perichaetium ; calyptra small; operculum rostrate; annulus narrow and hyaline; capsule oblong to ovoid, erect or inclined, nearly or quite symmetric, 0.75-1 mm. long, contracted below the mouth when dry, the exothedal cells quadrate to oblong-rectangular, 27 /x long, more or less collenchymatous and incrassate (nodose in type), the dry neck often swollen with large stomata; peristome-teeth spreading when dry, strongly incurved when moist, cristateciliate at base, spirally thickened at the apex of the forks; spores smooth, 10-13 m m diameter, maturing from February to May.
Type W>cai.iTY : Hispaniola {Poiteau; type seen) .
Distribution: On soil and moist stones; West Indies; Mexico; South America.

Fissidens elegans is a species of moss belonging to the family Fissidentaceae.

A study in tropical Ecuador found that Fissidens elegans was typically found in urban environments, suggesting that the species is tolerant to anthropogenic effects such as the presence of wastewater and heavy metal pollution.