Species

Crosbya nervosa

Etymology

nervosa: with conspicuous veins

Common Name(s)

moss

Current Conservation Status

2009 - At Risk - Naturally Uncommon

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2004 - Range Restricted

Qualifiers

2009 - RR

Authority

Crosbya nervosa (Hook.f. et Wilson) Vitt

Family

Daltoniaceae

Flora Category

Non Vascular - Native

Structural Class

Moss

Synonyms

Hookeria nervosa (Hook. et Wilson) Hampe ex C.Müll.; Daltonia nervosa (Hook. et Wilson) Hampe ex C.Müll.; Bellia nervosa (Hook. et Wilson) Broth.; Bellia crumii Vitt.

Distribution

In New Zealand known from the North Island (Mt Moehau, Mt Pirongia, near Pureora, Taupo and in the Kaimanawa Range), several sites in the South Island and from Chatham, Campbell and the Auckland Islands.

Habitat

Mostly corticolous or foliicolous on leaves and twigs of trees and shrubs in cloud forest, within frost flats, and on the Auckland Islands from the twigs of Coprosma cuneata, Metrosideros umbellata and on the old culms of tussocks (Chionochloa and Poa). Rarely saxicolous.

Features

Dioicous. Plants densely tufted or forming mats, foliage and stems glossy, yellow-green to golden-green above, darker below. Stems up to 27 mm tall, erect or ascending, simple to sparsely branched, dark red, naked or with a few rhizoids at the leaf bases, in cross-section of uniform, large cells, brood bodies occasionally present. Leaves loosely flexuose-erect when dry, erect-spreading when moist, 1.0-2.3 mm long, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, quickly narrowed to cuspidate, acuminate, asymmetric apex, strongly keeled, bordered by thick-walled, linear cells in about 2-4 rows at mid-leaf, sharply set off form laminal cells at base of leaf; nerve single, excurrent into the apex and confluent with the border; margins entire, reflexed to recurved; upper leaf cells 8-15 x 7 µm, smooth, shortly rhomboidal to oval-rhomboidal, with moderately thick walls; basal cells irregularly short-rectangular to irregularly hexagonal, hyaline, noticeably larger than upper cells 12-25 x 27-50 µm, cells at insertion similar in shape, often coloured; brood bodies occasionally produced at base of outer side of leaves, fusiform, of three to six uniseriate cells. Perichaetia lateral, leaves 1.1-1.2 mm long, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, shortly acuminate, concave, border present but indistinct, nerve absent or indistinct, if present becoming faint above; upper cells 30-65 x 9-12 µm. Setae 4-6 mm long, erect to curved. Reddish, thickest at base; smooth below, somewhat roughened above, capsules 0.5-1.0 mm long, oblong-obovate when mature, ovate and somewhat constricted beneath mouth when old, gradually contracted to the seta through roughened neck about ¼ to 1/5 the length of urn; stomates numerous in a wide band around the capsule neck; Peristome double; exostome teeth 16 and endostome segments 16. Opercula conic, with a long-rostrate beak, about as long as the capsule. Spores 15-17 µm wide, spherical. Calyptrae mitriform, deeply laciniate in lower portion.

Fruiting

Fruits, though often rarely produced, may be present throughout the year.

Threats

Not Threatened. However, known from very records in New Zealand and at these sites it is apparently very localised and uncommon.

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No



This page last updated on 25 Jul 2014