Status: Native
Synonyms:
Tortula bistratosa Flowers
Tortula desertorum Broth.
Syntrichia caninervis usually appears as a black haze or carpet of tufts with widely spaced stems in the desert around grasses and bases of small shrubs. The leaves have a heavily toothed/papillose awn that appears to wear off as the stems lengthen, such that only the distal leaves remained awned. The cells of the lamina are pluripapillose. These papilla become strongly stellate or dendritic near the base of the awn. The lamina is one-stratose at the base, becoming bistratose proceeding up the lamina. The margins remain one-stratose for most of the length of the leaves. S. caninervis spends most of its life-cycle in dormancy waiting for rain in the desert, such that it is usually found in dry condition with most of the leaves brown to black and the only green on the plants at the extreme top of the stems.
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Syntrichia caninervis, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, appearance of dry stems, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of lamina and margin, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of base of costa, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of older proximal leaf on stem, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of distal leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
Syntrichia caninervis, photomicrograph of leaf cross section with bistratose lamina and unistratose margin, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail, May 16, 2018
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