Scientific name:Cryphaea ravenelii Aust. Common name: Ravenel's Cryphaea Moss Family: Cryphaeaceae Legal status: Rare Habitat: bark and exposed roots of trees such as oak and hickory Illustration 17. Perichaetial leaves (0.5 nm); 18. Secondary stem leaves; 19. Peristome; 20. Capsules (0.5nm). Illustration with granted permission from William R. Buck, Editor, The Bryologist. Type locality: Rome, Floyd County, Georgia Herbarium specimens: New York, NY

Comments: Cryphaea ravenelii Aust., Ravenel's Cryphaea Moss was discovered by Henry W. Ravenel in 1872 in Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. In 1877 C.F. Austin recognized that this is a new species, he published its description, and named it in honor of H.W. Ravenel.

Description: "Plants in more or less rigid, yellow-brown tufts. Secondary stems sparsely and irregularly branched; stems and branches julaceous. Leaves erect or imbricate when dry, erect-spreading when moist, about 1.2 mm long, ovate, bluntly acute to rounded-obtuse; margins entire, more or less reflexed below; costa broad, usually forked at the tip, ending well below the apex ( about ¾-5/6 the leaf length); upper cells 5-6 nm wide, irregularly rounded and rounded-quadrate, smooth or nearly so. Perichaetial leaves rather pale and thin, oblong-elliptic, abruptly cuspidate because of the excurrent costa, obscurely papillose at upper ends of cells at back near the leaf apex. Capsules about 1-1.2 mm long; annulus revoluble; stomata none; peristome inserted well below the mouth, single, the teeth more or less united in pairs, brown (becoming pale-brown or whitish), lightly papillose. Spores 18-22 nm, very finely papillose. Calyptra coniccucullate, papillose throughout." (Crum, Howard A., and Lewis E. Anderson. 1981; Vol. 2. pp 748.).
"Rounded-obtuse leaves with essentially smooth, isodiametric cells and abruptly cuspidate perichaetial bracts define the species. " (Crum, Howard A., and Lewis E. Anderson. 1981; Vol. 2. pp 748.).

References : 1. Austin, Coe F. "Bryological Notes." Botanical Gazette." 2.5 (1877) : 89-90.
2. Crum, Howard A., and Lewis E. Anderson. Mosses of Eastern North America. Vol. 1&2 New York : Columbia Univ. Press, 1981.
3. Manuel, Monte G. "Studies in Cryphaeaceae I. Revision of the Genus Cryphaea in North America North of Mexico."The Bryologist 76.1 (1973): 159-161

Illustration: Manuel, Monte G. "Studies in Cryphaeaceae I. Revision of the Genus Cryphaea in North America North of Mexico."The Bryologist 76.1 (1973) pp 160.

Last updated on November 12, 2007.

Botanical explorations in Floyd County, Georgia