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FNA | Family List | FNA Vol. 27

5. Tetraphidaceae Schimper

Judith A. Harpel

Plants minute and budlike or merely small, forming dense turfs or scattered patches; protonema producing chlorophyllose, perpendicular protonematal flaps, which are persistent or disappear after the development of the gametophores. Stems erect, to 1.5 cm. Leaves ovate or lanceolate, erect, three-ranked and appressed or spreading, costate or ecostate, cells smooth, rounded-hexagonal or oblong-rhomboid, basal cells elongate. Sexual condition autoicous; archegonia and antheridia on short stems at the plant base. Seta straight or flexuose, smooth or papillose. Capsule exserted, single, cylindric, ovate or shortly oblong-cylindric; peristome of four, single, unsegmented, narrowly triangular, multicellular teeth; annulus absent. Calyptra mitrate, smooth or plicate, naked. Spores green to yellowish, 10-16 µm, spheric, smooth or finely papillose.

Genera 2, species 4 (2 genera, 4 species in the flora): circumboreal, disjunct to the Southern Hemisphere.

1 Plants with conspicuous stems to 1.5 cm, forming dense turfs or scattered patches, leaves costate, protonematal flaps not persistent, stalked asexual structures often present.   1 Tetraphis, p. 111
+ Plants minute, bud-like, stems less than 0.05 cm, leaves weakly costate in distal leaves or costa absent, protonematal flaps persistent and usually present, specialized asexual structures absent.   2 Tetrodontium, p. 113

Lower Taxa

