Lindbergia Kindberg, Eur. N. Amer. Bryin. 1: 13. 1897.
[for Sextus Otto Lindberg, 1835--1889, Scandinavian bryologist]
Paul L. Redfearn, Jr.
Plants slender, irregularly branched, in loose mats, dull, dark-green to yellowish or brownish. Pseudoparaphyllia foliose, few or lacking. Leaves of stems and branches similar, crowded, imbricate when dry, wide-spreading to squarrose when moist, ± concave, ovate, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, not plicate; margins ± decurrent, entire or faintly serrulate near apex; costa strong, ending below the leaf apex; cells rounded-hexagonal or rhombic, cell walls firm or thickened, smooth or 1-papillose over lumen. Sexual condition autoicous. Perichaetial leaves pale, erect, long acuminate from a sheathing base; margins entire or finely toothed; costa short; cells long and smooth. Seta 6--8 mm, yellow-brown. Capsule erect, symmetric, oblong-cylindric or weakly curved, narrower at mouth, brownish; annulus sometimes differentiated; operculum conic, blunt; peristome inserted below mouth, teeth lanceolate, blunt, fused at base, pale or yellow, ± papillose, not striolate, with low trabeculae at back at base; endostome a low, finely papillose membrane. Calyptra smooth, naked. Spores 18-24 µm, smooth to roughened.
Species ca. 18 (2 in the flora); temperate, tropical, North America, Eurasia, Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands (New Zealand).
Lindbergia is distinguished from other members of the Leskeaceae by leaves that are wide-spreading to squarrose when moist, short leaf cells, and more or less erect capsules with the endostome reduced to a low membrane.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Crum, H. A. 1956. Lindbergia in North America. Bryologist 59: 203--212. Crum, H. and L. E. Anderson. 1981. Mosses of Eastern North America. 2 vols. New York. Vol. 2, pp. 854--856. Crum, H. A. and W. R. Buck. 1994. Lindbergia. In A. J. Sharp et al., eds. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. 2 vols. Bronx. Vol. 2, pp. 853--857.
Version 1: November, 2000
