Status: Native
Synonyms:
Tortula chisosa Magill, Delgadillo & Stark
Syntrichia chisosa is a smaller member of the genus that thrives in arid landscapes in rocky crevices.
It has the usual Syntrichia basal hyaline windows and pluripapillose laminal cells.
The costa is orange to reddish, and most notable distally for long, blunt tipped abaxial papillae that
give the distal costa a "spiny" appearance. The costa is percurrent into a short red mucro. There is no hyaline
hairpoint as in the S. ruralis with which we found it growing.
The distal lamina of S. chisosa is usually mostly bistratose, with areas
that are unistratose. However, the lamina can be mostly to almost entirely unistratose in poorer condition
specimens. Sometimes areas of the same clump can have plants that are mostly bistratose in one area and unistratose in another.
The leaf margins are plane.
Many thanks to John Brinda for taking me to the location where this plant can be found in Fillmore Canyon. Syntrichia chisosa
is named after the Chisos Mtns. of Texas, where it also can be found.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Syntrichia chisosa (photomicrograph dry), photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of single dry stem, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of single dry stem, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of single wettened stem, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of stem cross section demonstrating central strand, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of distal portion of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of proximal portion of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of long papillae on abaxial costa, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
Syntrichia chisosa, photomicrograph of leaf cross section with long costa papillae and mostly bistratose lamina, photo Russ Kleinman & John Brinda, Organ Mtns. Desert Pks. National Monument, Fillmore Canyon, April 15, 2019
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