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Drepanocladus aduncus
Drepanocladus aduncus, in a broad sense, consists of plants that have stems with a central strand, but no enlarged epidermis; entire leaf margins; and a few enlarged and inflated alar cells. There is considerable morphological variation and several taxa have been recognized and occur in somewhat different habitats. These include the truly aquatic Drepanocladus capillifolius with a stout, long-excurrent costa; D. polycarpus with short leaf cells, branched erect-growing plants with short leaves; and D. kneiffii, a form with long leaf cells and slender, flaccid leaves. All of these variations appear to occur in mesotrophic to eutrophic fens and marshes. Janssens (1983) considered both polycarpus and kneiffii as vareties of D. aduncus. Drepanocladus sendtneri has a strong costa, thick-walled and nodose lower leaf cells, and the alar cells are strongly porose, thick-walled, and brownish.
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Left to right: whole plant, leaf apex, whole leaf |
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| Habit | highly variable, usually with slender, irregularly branched plants. |
| Stems | naked, with a central strand, but without a hyalodermis or enlarged epidermis. |
| Leaves | falcate-secund, narrowly lanceolate, and gradually narrowed to a long acuminate apex, sometimes shorter, costa single, slender, ending ½ to ¾ up the leaf, margins entire. |
| Leaf Cells | elongate to long-rhombic, smooth, not decurrent. |
| Alar Cells | consisting of a few enlarged hyaline cells that merge gradually with the basal leaf cells. |
| Habitat | Floating and stranded in water, emergent from fen pools, or forming dense carpets just above the water table. |
| Common Associates | Hamatocaulis vernicosus and H. lapponicus occur in similar habitats. |
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