The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Syrrhopodon armatus

Etymology

armatus: equipped, armed

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

Qualifiers

2009 - DP, SO, Sp

Authority

Syrrhopodon armatus Mitt.

Family

Calymperaceae

Flora Category

Non Vascular -

NVS Species Code

SYRARM

Structural Class

Moss

Distribution

Indigenous. Kermadec Islands: Raoul Island, Dayrell Island. New Zealand: North Island (Te Paki to Pauanui) and Chatham Islands (Rekohu and Rabbit Islands)

Habitat

Saxicolous, corticolous or rarely terricolous. Coastal. Usually on the shaded trunks or root mats of pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa and M. kermadecensis), near the base of tree fern trunks or on rotting Astelia bases. Also on shaded rock. Sometimes on shaded soil especially near petrel or shearwater burrows on offshore islands

Features

Plants small, pale white- or brown-green, forming tufts or sparse turves. Stems simple or sparsely forked, from <2 to 10 mm, beset below with strongly papillose, brick-red rhizoids, in cross-section lacking a central strand. Leaves strongly curved when dry, straight and ± erect when moist, with a moderately distinct oblong, pale, and sheathing base and a distinct upper lamina (or “limb”) which is most obvious when dry), usually appearing swollen at apex because of yellow-green adaxial masses of propagulae, c. 2.5–3.0 × 0.25–0.4 mm (when well-developed), with base c. one-third the total length; cancellinae one-fourth to nearly one-third the leaf length, with cells oblong, thin-walled, mostly 45–60 × c. 25–30 µm; margin of the leaf base with 1–3 rows of elongate cells, the outermost bearing many (commonly c. 10–12) unicellular, patent or sometimes retorse spines (c. 60–75 µm long), these reduced or lacking in some leaves; the upper lamina (limb) ligulate to narrowly linear rounded and broadly acute at apex, entire except for a few small crenulations above, often with a small mucro, involute at margin throughout or ± plane in patches, bordered by a narrow, pellucid cellular border c. 8–10 µm and c. 2 cells wide; upper laminal cells (of limb) oblong, firm-walled, unipapillose on both surfaces with tall and conspicuous papillae, mostly c. 10–15 × 6–8 µm, somewhat shorter near apex. Costa strong, subpercurrent, c.45–60 µm wide at base of limb, scarcely tapered, usually ending in a few pellucid cells to form a small mucro, armed abaxially with conspicuous single-celled spines. Propagulae borne in yellow-green masses at leaf tip, mostly 4–6-celled and c. 75 × 25 µm long.

Flowering

N.A. - spore producing

Fruiting

N.A. - spore producing

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

This page last updated on 25 Jul 2014