Schistostega Moss

Schistostega has been known as a shining moss because of its growth in usually dark, hidden places and its elusive greenish golden glow. The genus is characterized by its dimorphous sterile and fertile plants and its luminous, well developed protonema. P.-C. Chen et al. (1963) projected that Schistostega would be most likely found in northeastern China, since it has a wide distribution range in north temperate regions from North America, Europe, the Russian Far East, and northern Japan. Schistostega has been long sought in China and we are glad to report it in this Flora.

Leaves of sterile shoots 0.5-1.2 mm, ecostate, median cells smooth, oblong-rhomboidal, thin-walled, 16-20 µm wide, decurrent, confluent at the base, margin entire, weakly bordered by narrow, elongated cells. Protonemal gemmae sticky, obclavate, 80-200 × 15-20 µm, 3-4 cells in length, tapering and thickened near apex. Seta 2-5 mm. Capsule erect, light brown, smooth, subglobose or ovoid, annulus absent. Spores yellowish green, pitted-reticulate, 10-13 µm.

Plants small, delicate, 4–8 mm high, light green, in loose tufts. Protonema well developed, persistent, luminous in dark places. Leafy stems erect-flexuose, unbranched. Sterile plants frondiform, naked below, foliate above; leaves 0.4–0.9 mm long, widely spreading, distichous-complanate, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, somewhat asymmetric, acute to acuminate, decurrent and confluent at the base, ecostate; margins plane, entire, slightly bordered; leaf cells oblong-rhomboidal to rhomboidal, 52–110 µm × 14–28 µm, thin-walled, pellucid, smooth. Fertile plants with leaves arranged in 4–5 rows, leaves smaller than those on sterile plants, 0.6–0.8 mm long, erect-spreading, lanceolate, clustered at top of the stems, ecostate; margins entire, unbordered, thin-walled, lax, oblong-rhomboidal. Dioicous. Male and female plants grow together on the same protonema. Setae erect, elongate, 3–4 mm long, slender, more or less flexuose; capsules small, ovoid to subglobose, 0.3–0.4 mm high, erect, symmetric, smooth; annuli and peristome none. Spores small, ca. 10 µm in diameter, smooth.

Distribution: China, Japan, Russia (Siberia), Europe, and North America.

Habitat: on shaded or dark basalt cliffs in conifer forests, alt. 1540 m.

Gymnostomum pennatum Hedwig, Sp. Musc. Frond., 31. 1801; Schistostega osmundacea D. Mohr