Wijkia extenuata | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Division: | Bryophyta |
Class: | Bryopsida |
Subclass: | Bryidae |
Order: | Hypnales |
Family: | Pylaisiadelphaceae |
Genus: | Wijkia |
Species: | W. extenuata |
Binomial name | |
Wijkia extenuata (Brid.) H.A.Crum | |
Varieties | |
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Distribution of Wijkia extenuata in Tasmania, Australia from the Atlas of Living Australia. | |
Synonyms | |
Hypnum extenuatumBrid. |
Wijkia extenuata, commonly known as spear moss or spiky wiki, is a species of moss from the family Pylaisiadelphaceae. [1] [2] [3] It can be divided into two varieties Wijkia extenuata var. caudata and Wijkia extenuata var. extenuata. It is commonly found throughout the tropical, subtropical, and temperate forests of eastern Australasia and New Zealand.
Wijkia is a tropical to subtropical genus consisting of about 25-30 Old and New World species. [4] This species' previous name Acanthocladium extenatum was replaced by Crum (1971) [5] and is represented by a single species in Tasmania. [6] and New Zealand [7] The genus was previously placed in family Sematophyllaceae, but moved to the newly described Pylaisiadelphaceae when Sematophyllaceae was split on the basis of molecular DNA data. [2] [8] [3] The genus was named in honour of Sir Roelof J. van der Wijk (1895-1981), a Dutch bryologist. [9]
Wijkia extenuata is a variable species of small to medium-sized plant where the appearance of both varieties shares many of the same features. Both varieties are stiff, compactly branched plants with lose forming tufts to soft, pendulous forms. Plants are of yellow to brown-green or dark green colouration and turns golden with age with loosely interwoven mats. Stems are red, irregularly creep and are bipinnately or subpinnately branched about 12 cm (4.7 in) long. Branches pinnately or with simple branch, ascendant or creeping, and branchlets near tips are often with multiple flagelliform and microphyllous. The only very common distinction between variants is the presence of predominant branches. The “branch-only” growth does not develop flagelliform branches and are distinctive to the variation caudata. [10]
Leaves in stem and branch are differentiated, and ecostate. Stem leaves are broadly ovate to lanceolate, appressed to erect and wide-spreading when dry, abruptly tapered to a slender with occasional serrulate, piliferous apex; about ~1-2mm long in primary leaves and around 1.5 mm (0.059 in) long in secondary leaves. Branch leaves lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, smaller about 0.5–1 mm (0.020–0.039 in) long, sharply toothed, slenderer, erect to erect spreading, concave with gradually short acuminate to apex; occasional strong serrulate margins to the base and not piliferous. It is seemingly similar to the species Calliergonella cuspidata but differs with the distinctive long hairpoint on the leaves. [6] The plant reproduces asexually through specialised flagelliform and deciduous branchlets with foliose, deltoid pseudoparaphyllia.
Its perichaetia are conspicuous, scattered and arising on stems; inner perichaetial leaves erect with long and sharp toothed acumen. Setae are red-brown, smooth, elongate, twisted to the left above, and 15–40 mm (0.59–1.57 in) long. Calyptra are smooth, and cucullate. Capsules about 1.5 mm (0.059 in) long, asymmetric, horizontal, oblong-cylindric below the mouth, and short neck. Annulus are differentiated, operculum base high-conic, blunt, arched, and lacks long rostrum. Peristomes are pale, double; strongly bordered and shouldered 16 exostome teeth with a zig-zag median line, trabeculae on inner surface; endostome 16 with perforated or keeled segments, high basal membrane, and cilia in single or pairs. Spores are about 12–16 μm in diameter, papillose, and spherical.
Both varieties of Wijkia extenuata are commonly found growing on logs or decaying wood, bases of trees, as an epiphyte, and rarely on rocks and soils. [11] Both are a common species in wet forests and rainforests from east Australia (QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC, and TAS), Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations such as Fiji.
Takakia is a genus of two species of mosses known from western North America and central and eastern Asia. The genus is placed as a separate family, order and class among the mosses. It has had a history of uncertain placement, but the discovery of sporophytes clearly of the moss-type firmly supports placement with the mosses.
The Bryopsida constitute the largest class of mosses, containing 95% of all moss species. It consists of approximately 11,500 species, common throughout the whole world.
Sphagnopsida is a class of mosses that includes a single subclass Sphagnidae, with two orders. It is estimated it originated about 465 million years ago, along with Takakia. The order Sphagnales contains four living genera: Ambuchanania, Eosphagnum, and Flatbergium, which counts four species in total, and Sphagnum which contains the rest of the species. The extinct Protosphagnales contains a single fossil species.
The Funariidae are a widespread group of mosses in class Bryopsida. The majority of species belong to the genera Funaria and Physcomitrium.
Pottiales is an order of mosses in the subclass Dicranidae.
Andreaeobryum is a genus of moss with a single species Andreaeobryum macrosporum, endemic to Alaska and western Canada. The genus is placed as a separate family, order and class among the mosses.
Tetraphidaceae is a family of mosses. It includes only the two genera Tetraphis and Tetrodontium, each with two species. The defining feature of the family is the 4-toothed peristome.
Hypnales is the botanical name of an order of Bryophyta or leafy mosses. This group is sometimes called feather mosses, referring to their freely branched stems. The order includes more than 40 families and more than 4,000 species, making them the largest order of mosses.
Bryaceae is a family of mosses.
Neosharpiella is a genus of moss containing two species in the family Bartramiaceae. The type species, Neosharpiella aztecorum, grows in alpine regions of central Mexico, while the other species, Neosharpiella turgida, has been found in Bolivia and Ecuador.
Itatiella ulei is a species of moss in the family Polytrichaceae. It is the only species in the genus Itatiella. The Polytrichaceae is a common family of mosses that does not have close living relatives. Its small size and the inflexed leaf apex characterize Itatiella ulei. When this species grows directly exposed to sun at high elevations, it presents a similar aspect but can be distinguished based on the distal lamella cells which are single and rhombic.
Calliergon cordifolium is a species of moss in the Calliergonaceae family, commonly known as the calliergon moss or heart-leaved spearmoss. The species is abundant in the right habitat, and grows in marshes and wet woodland, especially woodland of alder (Alnus) or willow (Salix), as well as around streams, ditches and pools. The species grows in tufts among other moss species. Calliergon cordifolium requires a wet environment to grow, and often grows completely submerged in water. It typically prefers lowland, but has been recorded as high as 910 metres (1,000 yd) above sea level in Inverness, Scotland. The species has a circumpolar Boreo-temperate distribution. It is found throughout Europe. It has been recorded in north and central Asia, as well as Turkey and Japan, throughout North America and in New Zealand.
Pseudoditrichum is a rare North American genus of haplolepideous moss (Dicranidae). It is the only known genus in its family (Pseudoditrichaceae), and there is only one species in the genus. Pseudoditrichum mirabile has been found only in a small area along the Sloan River near Great Bear Lake. This is in the Northwest Territory in northern Canada, only a few kilometers south of the Arctic Circle.
Sematophyllaceae is a family of mosses, known commonly as signal mosses. They grow on rocks in wet or humid places. and are found nearly worldwide, especially in tropical and temperate regions. There are about 150 species, which form yellow to yellow-green mats with reddish stems.
Pleurophascum grandiglobum is a moss endemic to Tasmania, Australia, and was first noted by S. O. Lindberg in 1875 for its peculiar form of cleistocarpous capsule, erect growth form, lateral perichaetia, and ecostate leaves. Its exceedingly large, inoperculate, and often brightly coloured capsules captured the heart of the 19th-century Scandinavian bryologist, who considered the moss to be "of no less interest to the Museologist than is Rafflesia or Welwitschia to the Phanerogamist". The species currently belongs to a monogeneric family Pleurophascaceae that is found only in temperate Australasia and includes three different species. Pleurophascum ovalifolium, heretofore known as P. grandiglobum var. decurrens, is the New Zealand taxon while the last remaining member of the genus, Pleurophascum occidentale, occurs only in Western Australia.
Seligeria cardotii is one of the two species in genus Seligeria, bryophytes of the Seligeriaceae family, in the Southern Hemisphere; an additional 19 species have been described in the Northern Hemisphere.
Ulota is a genus of mosses comprising 69 species with a worldwide distribution, though most species are found in the southern hemisphere.
Ditrichaceae is a family of haplolepideous mosses (Dicranidae) in the order Dicranales.
Wilfred "Wilf" Borden Schofield (Botanist) was a Canadian botanist, specializing in mosses and liverworts. He was considered by many "the foremost bryologist in Canada".
Wijkia is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Pylaisiadelphaceae, with its species found in Southeastern Asia, Africa, Australia and America.