Sunday 22 May 2016

Callicostella at Singleton Botanical Gardens


There was a healthy colony of a Callicostella  sp. (Hookeriaceae) growing on the bottom of a hanging bromeliad and fern display (photo above) in the garden's hothouse today, along with some other less distinct taxa. There are apparently about 100 species of Callicostella, a tropical genus found mainly in Africa and Central and South America, with one species known from Australia. Growing on bromeliads, it's tempting to speculate it might a be a new world species, but it would seem an impossible task to determine which plant or from which source the original imported material came in on and it seems the chances of naming the species are small. The following images provide a record of the specimen I'll keep for reference.
See HERE for illustrations of the genus.

Also growing with the Callicostella was a species presumably from the Dicranaceae, with shoot apices sporting dense clusters of deciduous leaves/plantlets, giving a distinctive appearance.

Plus something from the Plagiotheciaceae I suspect, pretty much identical to the material I once found in a friends orchid pot (see HERE), resembling a diminutive Pseudotaxiphyllum and likewise fruiting freely.

Finally, coming out of the jungle and keep things real, something native ... there were some nice patches of Cirriphyllum crassinervium on rocks bordering the rose beds, plus some rather luxuriant epiphytic growth on mature Cordyline australis trunks, which included Orthotrichum striatum and Syntrichia latifolia.

1 comment:

  1. All these alien bryophytes are totally fascinating, and well done for IDing so many to genus. I wish we could get them all named somehow. I wonder whether Twitter, with a suitable hashtag, could yield results.

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