Dicranales

Article By:

Crum, Howard Herbarium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Last reviewed:January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.192400

A large and diverse order of the true mosses (Bryopsida), containing 13 families. Plants in the Dicranales generally have long, narrow leaves and deeply forked peristome teeth. The plants are erect and simple or merely forked and often woolly because of a dense covering of rhizoids among the leaves. The leaves, inserted in numerous rows, or rarely only two or three are often turned to one side or, when dry, crisped and curled. They are long-tapered, with a long, single costa and short or elongate cells which are sometimes bulging or papillose. The cells at the basal angles are often conspicuously differentiated. The capsules, terminal and generally exserted, may be erect and symmetric or inclined and asymmetric and often furrowed. An operculum is generally differentiated. The peristome (rarely lacking) commonly consists of 16 papillose or vertically pitted-striate teeth. The spores are spherical or rarely tetrahedral. The calyptra is cucullate or less commonly mitrate. Chromosome numbers 12 and 14 are common, but multiples of 10, 11, 13, and 15 are also known. See also: Bryidae; Bryophyta; Bryopsida

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