Bucklandiella brevipes (Kindb. in Mac.) Bednarek-Ochyra & Ochyra
Synonym: Racomitrium brevipes Kindb. in Mac.
Special status: NONE
Recognition: Plants are a bit smaller than typical Bucklandiella heterosticha, a bit darker at the tips of the shoots. It is much more similar to Bucklandiella sudetica, such that Lawton thought this was merely a form of that (Lawton 1971, 1972). Bucklandiella brevipes shares a bistratose leaf margin with Bucklandiella sudetica and a costa which is mostly 3 cells thick from base to midleaf. However, Bucklandiella brevipes has a much wider and flatter costa, 6-9 cells wide adaxially. The costa anatomy is very distinctive. The specimen I have examined (Kofranek 2304, Grant Co., Oregon) also has very strongly pseudopapillose leaf cells, nearly globular above the vertical walls in section. The awns are spinulose on the back as well as along their margins.
Distribution: Only recently reported from Oregon (the Kofranek collection is the only one I have seen) but apparently more abundant northward. This is an endemic of the Pacific Northwest, from Oregon to Alaska.
Comments: The "pseudopapillae" of the Kofranek specimen appear to be very typical papillae, not merely cuticular ridges. There does not seem to be any difference between the papillae described for Codriophorus norrisii and the "pseudopapillae" of species such as Bucklandiella brevipes. The pictures provided here should help botanists recognize the various prominences that decorate the leaves of the racomitriums.
Note: In the treatment of this species in the Flora of North America (Ochyra and Bednarek-Ochyra 2007, p. 281) there is a confusing line in the first sentence of the paragraph following the habitat and distribution paragraph. The phrase, ..."and coarsely denticulate, spinulose," seems to apply to the next phrase describing the laminal cells but these adjectives actually refer to the character of the awns. This is made clear in the formal description which precedes this section.
Bucklandiella brevipes; Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. D. Kofranek 2304.
Bucklandiella brevipes; Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. D. Kofranek 2304.
Bucklandiella brevipes; Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. D. Kofranek 2304.
Bucklandiella brevipes; Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. D. Kofranek 2304.
Bucklandiella brevipes; Olive Lake, Grant County, Oregon. D. Kofranek 2304.
Guide to Racomitrioideae of Oregon
Created 2007 Northwest Botanical Institute