Status: Native
Synonyms:
Didymodon trifarius(Hedwig) Rohling
Saelania glaucescens at first glance looks like Ceratodon purpureus with a fungal infection. The blue-green color is
diagnostic in the field. The leaf morphology is nearly identical otherwise, all the way down to the occasionally double-toothed margin and
the irregular toothing at the apex. The cells of the lamina are clear and mostly quadrate. The filamentous or globular material on the
leaves that imparts the color to them is apparently a diterpene chemical and not a fungus or cyanobacteria. The sporophyte characters
differ from the sporophyte of Ceratodon but we have yet to find reproductive plants. Saelania glaucescens is found under shady rocky
overhangs on soil or rock.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Saelania glaucescens (rewetted in lab), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
Saelania glaucescens (dry), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
Saelania glaucescens, dark field photomicrograph of stem, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
Saelania glaucescens, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
Saelania glaucescens, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
Saelania glaucescens, photomicrograph of leaf apex, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
Saelania glaucescens, photomicrograph of double tooth on leaf margin, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, San Miguel Cty., Gallinas Cyn W of Las Vegas, May 5, 2019
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