Myurella

Schimper

in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper, Bryol. Europ. 6: 39, plate 560. 1853.

Etymology: Greek myos, mouse, and oura, tail, alluding to appearance of branches
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 28. Treatment on page 370. Mentioned on page 366, 371, 638, 639, 642.

Plants threadlike, pale green, yellow-green, or glaucous green. Stems simple to irregularly branched; paraphyllia absent. Leaves erect to wide-spreading, imbricate or widely spaced, round to ovate; margins erect, subentire, serrulate, or spinose-dentate; apex obtuse, acuminate, or apiculate; costa single, double, short, weak, or almost ecostate; alar cells not differentiated; laminal cells rhomboidal, faintly prorulose to strongly 1-papillose abaxially, walls firm. Capsule erect to nearly horizontal, cylindric, symmetric.

Distribution

Nearly worldwide except Antarctica.

Discussion

Species 9 (3 in the flora).

Species of Myurella are small, slender plants of calcareous rock shelves and calcareous moist soil, mostly in boreal and arctic zones. The capsules are smooth.

Selected References

None.

Key

1 Laminal cells 1-papillose abaxially. Myurella sibirica
1 Laminal cells faintly prorulose abaxially > 2
2 Leaves imbricate, erect; apices rounded-obtuse to occasionally short-apiculate. Myurella julacea
2 Leaves distant, erect to spreading; apices shortly acuminate-apiculate. Myurella tenerrima