Webera erecta (Lindb.) Limpr. in North America

Abstract

This rare moss was collected by Dr. John W. Bailey, who found it growing on rocks in snow water, just below McClure's Rock in Paradise Valley, Rainier National Park, Washington, at 7,000 feet altitude, August 5, 1925. The type of this plant was collected by Chr. Kaurin near Opdal, Norway. Dr. Harold Lindberg, son of the author of the specific name, kindly loaned a plant from the type material for comparison and verification, the label of which shows the interesting fact that Geheeb had first determined it as Mielichoferia nitida. Then Lindberg described it as Pohlia (Cacodon) erecta, in Rev. bryol., 1883, p. 7. Later Sanio published it as Mielichoferia defecta in Bot. Centralbl., Bd. XIII, No. 7 (1883). Kindberg sided with Sanio, referring it to Mielichoferia, but recognizing the priority of Lindberg's specific name, writing Mielichoferia erecta Lindb., in Enum., p. 22 (1888). However, the plant is undoubtedly a Webera, as a close study of the perfect North American material shows. There is a more or less perfect outer peristome. But the inner peristome is always rudimentary, and is, indeed, not found at all in a large number of capsules. When present, it consists of a low membrane of 2 or 3 rows of thin plates from which project rudiments of paired cilia and segments, usually not longer than the height of the supporting membrane.