Status: Native
Synonyms:
Syntrichia laevipila Bridel
Tortula pagorum (Milde) De Notaris
Syntrichia pagorum prefers to grow on either live or downed wood at lower elevation in the Gila. It has oblanceolate, papillose leaves with plane margins. The apex is truncate to emarginate with a smooth hairpoint that is up to 1/2 the length of the lamina. The costa is smooth (without papillae) on the abaxial surface. The most impressive character, though, is the mass of brood leaves found in the axils of the comal leaves. The brood leaves are fusiform, green, papillose, without a costa, and apiculate. There are hydroids in the costa, visible as an irregularly triangular space beneath the guide cells. The stem has an obvious central strand.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Syntrichia pagorum (3x macro), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, in a canyon off Bill Evans Road near Hwy 180, growing on Quercus grisea, January 3, 2011
Syntrichia pagorum, 100x photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, in a canyon off Bill Evans Road near Hwy 180, growing on Quercus grisea, January 3, 2011
Syntrichia pagorum, 100x photomicrograph of leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, in a canyon off Bill Evans Road near Hwy 180, growing on Quercus grisea, January 3, 2011
Syntrichia pagorum, 400x photomicrograph of abaxial surface of costa without papillae, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, in a canyon off Bill Evans Road near Hwy 180, growing on Quercus grisea, January 3, 2011
Syntrichia pagorum, 400x photomicrograph of brood leaf, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Burro Mtns, in a canyon off Bill Evans Road near Hwy 180, growing on Quercus grisea, January 3, 2011
Syntrichia pagorum, cross section of costa showing space occupied by hydroids which are disrupted by the act of cross-sectioning (and the guide cells are pulled apart a bit here, exagerrating the space), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Western New Mexico University, "Fern Hill", January 9, 2025
Syntrichia pagorum, cross section of stem with central strand, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Western New Mexico University, "Fern Hill", January 9, 2025
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