A Recent Collection of Fissidens neonii

Abstract

Fissidens neonii (Bartr.) Grout has been found for the first time since the original collection in 1931. Growth studies show that new plants commonly arise from buried sterile stems and from rhizoids. Male, female, and sterile plants are morphologically distinct and are independent at maturity; all three types may originate from the same leaf axil or rhizoid. Fissidens neonii does not appear to be closely related to any other North American species of the genus. Fissidens neonii (Bartr.) Grout was described as a Moenkemeyera by Bartram (1931) from a collection made by Brother N6on in the vicinity of Lafayette, Louisiana. Because of its entire peristome teeth Bartram placed the species in Moenkemeyera although noting that the spores (20-25/ in diameter) were unusually large for the genus. The species was subsequently treated as a Fissidens by Grout (1936, 1941, 1943). This distinctive little moss had apparently not been found since Brother Nion's original collection in 1931. Serious searches for it in Lafayette Parish over the past few years were unsuccessful until January, 1965, when I found it just east of the Lafayette city limits near the Vermilion River. The minute, closely gregarious plants were restricted to an area of only a few square feet; they were growing with Philonotis sp., Ditrichum pallidum, and Fissidens viridulus on the steep sides of a cow path leading into an oak-dominated coulee. Surrounding the coulee are broad meadows that slope gently into it, suggesting that it occupies the bottom of an ancient river meander. The coulee now drains Pleistocene terrace lands with a maximum elevation of 35 feet above sea level (Howe & Moresi 1933) and leads into the Vermilion River about 1,500 feet from the site of the recent collection. Brother N6on did not include any specific locality or habitat data with his collection but Bartram noted in his description that the soil with the specimen was light and loamy; this is the type of soil at the present site. Although the area was searched carefully, no other colonies of F. neonii were found. Brother N6on, now at the Pennsionat de Notre Dame, Le Puy, France, responded to inquiries about the circumstances of his collection of F. neonii that he did not recall which particular location around Lafayette had yielded the species. The de la Salle Provincial House in Lafayette, where Brother Nion was stationed in 1931 and which was the starting point for his collecting walks, is on the west bank and upriver about two miles from the present site. It is on the same terrace and is cut by similar meander scars. Most of the original 1 Department of Biology, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, Louisiana. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 05:30:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 3Zii~iOidB iijji~iii~~,~j!iiidiiii iiji::jiii::iiliiilj~ :':~:':`:':':':`:':':'-':'''~:':':': iiiiCFiiiB)iiiiii':ljr i.ii'~i. i:?:~;~iiiiii~ I~ili~lil~