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Genus Buxbaumia

Genus BuxbaumiaGenus BUXBAUMIA, Hall.

The species of the Genus Buxbaumia are tiny stemless plants growing scattered over decayed wood or on the ground.

The leaves are extremely minute, some broadly oval or oblong terminating in broad, spreading cilia.

The spore-cases are the conspicuous part of the plant, they are egg-shaped with a conical cap, depressed above, swollen on the lower side, and are borne obliquely on a thick pedicel covered with wart-like protuberances.

The outer skin at the margin of the mouth is split into irregular fragments which roll back from the thickened rim which is formed of several layers of cells (the pseudo-annulus). The teeth are in several rows, the outer short and rudimentary; the inner membrane (endostome) is conical tubular, of 32 fan-like plaits, slightly twisted to the right.

There are five species known at present, three of them in North America.

Albrecht von Haller, the founder of the genus, named it Buxbaumia in honour of its discoverer, J. C. Buxbaum.





Buxbaumia Aphylla Moss