Leucobryum juniperoideum C. Müller 1845

Plant / epiphyte
Leucobryum juniperoideum grows on trunk of Trees with bark of low pH

Plants small to medium-sized, up to 3 cm high, whitish green, in dense tufts or compact cushions. Stems erect, simple or branched; central strand absent. Leaves somewhat flexuose when dry, erect-spreading to slightly falcate-secund when moist, 5–8 mm × 1–2 mm, lanceolate, gradually narrowed to subtubulous apices from a slightly shorter ovate base, acute to bluntly mucronate at the apex; dorsal side of leaf acumina smooth; margins entire, bordered by 2–3 rows of linear cells, 40–45 µm × 3–5 µm, lamina near leaf base consisting of 5–10 rows of quadrate to rectangular cells; costae in cross section, leucocysts 2–4 layers on abaxial side and 1–2 layers on adaxial side, sandwiching a layer of chlorocysts. Dioicous. Sporophytes not seen.

Distribution: China, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, Macaronesia, New Guinea, Japan, Korea, Caucasus, Europe, Turkey, and Madagascar.

Habitat: on soil and tree trunks under broad-leafed forests.

Leucobryum altiusculum Besch., J. Bot. (Desvaux) 12: 285. 1898. Leucobryum angustissimum Broth., Symb. Sin. 4: 28. 1929. Type. China: Hunan, Handel-Mazzetti 12597 (holotype H). Leucobryum brevicaule Besch., J. Bot. (Desvaux) 12: 285. 1898. Leucobryum ferriei Card. in Ren. & Card., Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique 41(1): 28. 1905. Leucobryum holleanum Dozy & Molk., Bryol. Jav. 1: 17, t. 13. 1855. Leucobryum humile Broth. ex Besch., J. Bot. (Desvaux) 12: 286. 1898. Leucobryum japonicum (Besch.) Card. in Broth., Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1(3): 346. 1901. Ochrobryum japonicum Besch., J. Bot. (Desvaux) 11: 151. 1897. Leucobryum lacteolum Besch., J. Bot. (Desvaux) 12: 286. 1898. Leucobryum neilgherrense C. Müll., Bot. Zeitung (Berlin). 12: 556. 1854. Leucobryum neilgherrense var. minus Card., Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 19(2): 97. 1905. Type. China: Taiwan, Faurie 50 (holotype PC). Leucobryum retractum Besch., Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. sér. 7, 17: 334. 1893. Leucobryum rhizophyllum Warnst., Hedwigia 57: 81, f. 17. 1915. Leucobryum textorii Besch., J. Bot. (Desvaux) 12: 288. 1898. Leucobryum triviale C. Müll., Linnaea 36: 30. 1869.

Leucobryum juniperoideum is a species of mosses belonging to the family Leucobryaceae.

It has cosmopolitan distribution.