Macromitrium fernandezianum Brotherus ex Skottsberg 1924

Macromitrium fernandezianum

Macromitrium fernandezianum Broth. in Skottsb., Nat. Hist. Juan Fernandez 2:422, 1924. [Original material: Mas a Tierra, Puerto Ingles, ca. 550 m, coll. C. & I. Skottsberg n. 168 (lectotype, present designation; S!).]

Bright green to brownish plants with erect branches to 5 mm high. Leaves irregularly contorted or twisted spirally around stem when dry, erect-spreading when moist, 2.0–2.5 mm long, to 0.4 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate from an oval base, narrowed to 0.1 mm wide near tip; margins plane to slightly recurving, crenulate to serrulate; tip usually narrowly rounded with small teeth and a long, projecting, papillose apical cell; costa subpercurrent, covered with many rounded cells abaxially in distal 1/5; cells of upper lamina rounded, 10–12 μm in diameter, with somewhat thickened walls, mamillose and weakly papillose; inner basal cells oval, to 20 μm long; those toward margin linear, to 40 μm long, many bearing a high, cylindrical papilla. Pseudoautoicous? Setae 3–5 mm long, reddish, smooth. Capsule urn oval, ca. 1.0 mm long, smooth; mouth somewhat puckered when dry, more reddish brown; peristome lacking? Spores 20–25 μm in diameter, finely papillose. Calyptra bare.

MAS A TIERRA: El Yunque, 400–500 m, Sk. 166 (S); Puerto Ingles, ca. 500 m, Sk. 168 (lectotype, S); Salsipuedes, Sk. 169 (S); Portezuelo de Villagra, ca. 600 m, Sk. 170 (S); Puerto Frances, Lorna Incienso, Sk. 172 (S); Valle Colonial, near trail to Portezuelo de Villagra, ca. 220 m, Sk. M6 (S); Falda Larga (Q. Minero), Sk. M60 (S); La Vaguería, Sk. M62 (S); Cerro Pascua, eastern end, Sk. M76 (S); forest above Plazoleta del Yunque, 400–450 m, Sk. M245, M246, M253 (S); Vaquería, slope of Cerro Alto, Sk. M257 (S), Sk. M260 (S); Portezuelo (Mirador), 500 m, K. 308/31, 308/32a (B); Q. östl. Plazoleta, 300 m, K. 322/13 (B); trail to Camote, 500 m, K. 330/13a, 330/15 (B); Plazoleta del Yunque, 220 m, K. 332/1a, 332/2 (B); Cordon Salsipuedes, ca. 1700 ft, H. & E. 345.

The species is endemic to Mas a Tierra. Being epiphytic, it probably is less common now than formerly. Macromitrium masafuerae, which follows, is a closely related species, and the group may well have evolved on the islands.