Rigid Aloina Moss

Plants small, bud-like, only up to 2.5 mm high. Stems simple. Leaves broadly ovate to lingulate, 1.5–2.5 mm × 0.3–0.8 mm; rounded and cucullate at the apex; margins nearly entire to irregularly denticulate; costa very broad, ending at or below apex; green filaments branched, 3–9 cells high, filament cells thin-walled, cylindric to spherical; upper leaf cells mostly transversely linear-rectangular, 20–25 µm wide, strongly thick-walled; basal cells rectangular to quadrate, thin-walled. Dioicous, rarely cladoautoicous or synoicous. Perichaetial leaves mostly undifferentiated. Setae reddish brown, strongly twisted to right above, slightly to left below, 10–20 mm long; capsules erect, red, ovoid-cylindrical, 0.9–3.0 mm long; annuli developed, revoluble, in 1–3 rows of cells; peristome teeth filiform, red, strongly twisted counterclockwise; basal membrane low; opercula conical to subulate, long rostrate. Spores yellowish green, spherical, almost smooth.

Varieties 3 (1 in the flora): North America, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa.

Distribution: China, India, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia), Europe, North and South America, and northern Africa.

Habitat: on soil, soil walls, or rocks.

Tortula rigida (Hedw.) Schrad. ex Turn., Musc. Hib. 43. 1804. Bryum ridigum (Hedw.) Dicks. ex With., Syst. Arr. Brit. Pl. (ed. 4) 3: 797. 1801. Aloina anthropophila (C. Müll.) Broth., Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1: 428. 1902. Barbula anthropophila C. Müll., Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n. ser. 3: 99. 1896. Type. China: Shaanxi (Schen-si), in tectis urbis Tun-juen-fan, 1894, Giraldi s.n. (isotype H). Aloina potaninii Broth. ex P.-C. Chen, Hedwigia 80: 283. 1941, invalid name, cited as synonym (Article 34.1, Berlin Code). Type. Mongolia: Potanin 27 p.p. Aloina stellata Kindb., Bih. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl. 7(9): 137. 1883, nom. illeg.

Barbula rigida Hedwig, Sp. Musc. Frond., 115. 1801