Rosulabryum erythroloma

Plants small to medium-sized, maroon, red, or red-green. Stems 1–2.5 cm, distinctly singly rosulate, innovations short, rosulate. Leaves of main rosette and innovations similar; appressed and not much altered to sometimes spirally twisted around stem, erect-spreading when moist, obovate, flat, 1–2.5 mm; base decurrent; margins recurved to mid leaf, distinctly serrulate distally, limbidium present, of 2–4 rows of cells; apex acute; costa not reaching apex, percurrent, or short-excurrent, awn stout; proximal laminal cells long-rectangular in rosette leaves; medial and distal cells short-rhomboidal, 15–25 µm wide, 2–3:1, walls firm, not porose. Specialized asexual reproduction by rhizoidal tubers, orange, maroon, or red, (180–)200–350 µm. Sexual condition dioicous. Capsule nutant, brown to red-brown, cylindric to elongate-pyriform, 2.5–4 mm.

Phenology: Capsules mature Apr–Jun.
Habitat: Moist shaded soil, soil banks, rotting wood, lowland forests, protected sites near Pacific coast
Elevation: low to moderate elevations (0-500 m)

B.C., Calif., Oreg., Wash., Mexico, Central America (Costa Rica).

Discussion

Rosulabryum erythroloma is a distinctive coastal endemic, characterized by reddish decurrent leaves with a short awn. The capsules often become strikingly bright red and nutant as they mature; the limbidia are red to sometimes yellowish in older leaves.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa