Status: Native
Synonyms:
Grimmia glauca sensu G. Jones
Grimmia laevigata is generally a lower elevation moss in the Gila National Forest. It has shorter, more stocky leaves with a short but obvious decurrent base that mimics auricles. The costa at times disappears before becoming excurrent as an awn. The costa is thinner toward the apex than it is at the base, where it can be more than 8 guide cells wide. Eva Maier has shown that the middle two guide cells of the costa in the upper leaf are sunken in and have thickened adaxial cell walls. The lamina is one cell thick at the extreme base, but 2 cells thick above the base. The awn is more broadly based and decurrent along the margins of the lamina compared to G. ovalis, the other common Grimmia here possessing incurved margins. The alar cells are nearly quadrate and green in color. Grimmia laevigata grows in the open on acidic volcanic tuff outcroppings in drier areas in the Gila.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Grimmia laevigata (3x macro), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 40x photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 40x photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 40x photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 200x photomicrograph of leaf apex, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 100x photomicrograph of leaf bases, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 200x photomicrograph of leaf cross section near leaf base, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 200x photomicrograph of leaf cross section near midleaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 400x photomicrograph of leaf cross section near midleaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 400x photomicrograph of upper leaf costa cross section with thickened adaxial cell walls of middle two guide cells, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
Grimmia laevigata, 200x photomicrograph of upper leaf costa cross section with thickened adaxial cell walls of middle two guide cells, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, CBar Ranch Road, September 11, 2012
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