Mineral deposits in cells of Hookeria lucens

Abstract

Mineral deposits are frequent in vascular plants, but only calcite, whewellite, and ferrihydrite have been described previously in bryophytes. Hookeria lucens is a terricolous and pleurocarpous moss with reddish-brown deposits of mineral substances present inside gametophyte cells. Observations with a light microscope, SEM and TEM Edax analysis, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated the presence of the minerals bohemite, calcite, diaspore, feldspar, ferrihydrite, gibbsite, jarosite, lepidocrocite, opal, pirolusite, and quartz inside hydrom, cortex and phyllidia cells. XRD analysis of the soils where the mosses were growing indicated the presence of chlorite, diaspore, feldspar, kaolinite, mica, plagioclase, quartz, and smectite. The origin of these minerals in the tissues of H. lucens is uncertain, but they may have resulted from a biomineralization process inside the moss cells from plant elements, such as Mn and S, and from those in the soil on which the mosses were growing.