Rhabdoweisia Bruch & Schimper in Bruch, Schimper & W. Gümbel, Bryol. Eur. 1: 97. 1846.
[Greek rhabdos, rod, presumably referring to ribbed capsule, and the pottiaceous genus Weissia, which it resembles.]
W. B. Schofield
Plants in short loose tufts, perennial, dull green to brownish. Stems 0.2--3 cm, erect, forked by innovations, red-brown, without central strand, rhizoids smooth, at base of stem. Leaves oblong-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, obtuse to acute, keeled, strongly divergent when moist, crisped to sinuose when dry, 2--4 mm; costa subpercurrent, formed of rectangular cells; margins usually recurved, mainly serrate to serrulate along distal margins, with 1-celled irregular teeth; laminal cells smooth, proximal cells hyaline to brownish, rectangular, thin-walled, lacking chlorophyll; distal cells, quadrate to irregular, usually broader than long, chlorophyllose except for the marginal teeth. Specialized asexual reproduction lacking. Sexual condition autoicous; perigonial leaves short-elliptic; perichaetial leaves not differing from the vegetative. Seta solitary, erect, yellow, 2--6 mm, smooth. Capsule exserted, erect, brown to yellow-brown, 0.5--1 mm, symmetric, ovoid to oblong-cylindric, when dry and empty contracted below mouth and deeply 8-furrowed,; annulus lacking; stomata at base of urn, phaneropore; operculum obliquely subulate, 0.5--1 mm; peristome single, 16 teeth joined by a low basal membrane, inserted slightly below mouth, irregular and not forked, early deciduous. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, covering 1\2 of capsule. Spores nearly spherical to slightly angled, smooth, 16--20 µm, papillose.
Species 6 (2 in the flora): predominately Northern Hemisphere, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands.
A strong case has been made to include this, as well as other genera, in the family Rhabdoweisiaceae Limpr.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Lawton, E. 1961. A revision of the genus Rhabdoweisia. Bryologist 64:140--156. Zander, R. 1966. Rhabdoweisia crenulata new to North America. Bryologist 69: 356--358.
