Soil-Dwelling Mosses

Note: All thumbnails are links to larger images that open in a new window.

Descriptions are based on Crum and Anderson (1981) and Crum (1983).

Pohlia nutans (Hedw.) Lindb.

P. nutans is best recognized in the field by its sporophyte. The setae of the sporophyte is orange-yellow and is 14 to 33 mm long and can sometimes be as much as 50 mm. The capsule is orange-brown and can be horizontal to pendulous. It is 2.5 to 4 mm long with a neck that makes up about 1/3 of its length. In gametophyte it is an acrocarp which grows in dull to somewhat shiny green or yellowish loose tufts, which can be 1 to 4 cm tall. The stems are generally unbranched and red. The leaves are shorter and more distant below to longer and crowded above. The leaves are much longer than wide and lance-acuminate in shape with a strong costa. Near the tips, the leaves denticulate (with finely sharp teeth which point outwards).

This species is common on soil, decaying logs, the tops of rotten stumps, old Sphagnum hummocks, and soil in rock crevices.

Can be found throughout much of North America and throughout much of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Trematodon ambiguus (Hedw.) Hornsch.

T. ambiguus is another species which can be readily identified by its unique sporophyte. The bright yellow setae is slender and can be 5 to 27 mm in length and is topped by the distinctive light brown capsule. The capsule is made up of the urn which is 1 to 2.5 mm long, a neck which is as long or often longer than the urn and an operculum which is 1 to 1.5 mm in length. The plants form small, light-green or yellowish loose tufts that are 4 to 7 mm tall. The leaves are erect with a clasping leaf base and a long awn. The leaves can be 2.5 to 5 mm in length and have a costa that fills the awn.

The unique sporophytes of T. ambiguus with a capsule that has a neck as long or longer than the urn.

It is found on moist, disturbed soil, along stream banks and roadsides.

This is a northern species found across the northern portions of North America. It is also found in Europe and eastern Asia.

Funaria hygrometrica Hedw.

It has the common name of the “Cord Moss” due the cord-like twisting of the dry setae. The setae is highly variable often 12 to 45 mm long, but sometimes reaching 80 mm in length. It is slender and slightly bent, twisted or wavy and often dynamically responds to changes in humidity. The capsule is 2 to 3 mm long, curved and asymmetric and can be held horizontally or pendulously. The plants are unremarkable in comparison to the distinct sporophytes. They stand about 4 to 10 mm tall. The leaves on the stems are distant below to more crowded above. The upper leaves are 1 to 3 mm long and erect. The leaf shape is variable, but they are often broadly obovate with a costa that ends in the acumen of the leaf or sometimes extends shortly beyond.

The sporophytes of F. hygrometrica with its pyriform (loosely pare shaped) capsule and the twisted (especially near the capsule) seta.

A weed, common on wet soil, frequent on burned over sites, lawns.

It is a cosmopolitan species, found globally.

Fissidens taxifolius Hedw.

As a genus, Fissidens is very easily recognized by the flattened shoots due to the insertion of the leaves in 2 rows one down either side of the stem. The leaves of Fissidens also have an extra laminar flap which forms a pocket on each leaf within which the leaf above it can fit tightly, giving the shoots a very rigid appearance. This species forms short open turfs 4 to 8 mm. The costa is brownish and extends beyond the end of the leaf.

A leaf cross-section of Fissidens showing the extra lamina and the pocket that it forms (Left) and a shoot showing leaf arrangement (Right).

Shoots of Fissidens spp. showing the distinctly flattened nature of the shoots.

F. taxifolius is a locally common species growing on calcium rich soil and rock.

Widespread in eastern North America.

Fissidens adianthoides Hedw.

This is a larger species growing in upright turfs 10 to 35 mm tall, sometimes as tall as 90 mm. The leaves are usually bordered by 4-5 rows of paler cells and 1.5 to 4.5 mm long. Unlike F. taxifolius, the costa is not colored and extends to within 2 or 3 cells of the unevenly toothed apex. The sporophyte also arises laterally in this species. The reddish setae is 7 to 15 mm, and sometimes up to 23 mm in length. The capsules are suberect to inclined, often curved and normally 1 to 1.5 mm through in larger variants can be as much as 2.5 mm long.

It is found on soil or humus, rocks, logs, stumps, or sometimes on the bark of exposed tree roots.

It is in North America, across the north and in the east south to the Gulf of Mexico. It is also known from Europe.

Polytrichum juniperinum Hedw.

This species forms green, bluish-green or red-brown short to relatively tall turfs. The leaves which resemble the scales of juniper are 4 to 8 mm long with sheathing bases. The leaves are straight and often erect with a red or brown toothed awn. Like other Polytrichum this species has lamellae present on the upper surface of the leaves though they are covered by the infolded margins which forms a distinctive ridge down the middle of the leaf. The sporophyte is large with a setae that grows from 20 to 60 mm tall with suberect to horizontal dark-brown capsules which are sharply 4-angled and 2.5 up to 5 mm long.

Shoots of P. juniperinum (two Left photos), a leaf cross-section showing the lamellae and in folded margins (Middle-Right), and a leaf tip showing the red-brown awn (Right).

This species is found on soil and rocks. Usually in dry exposed or partially shaded places such as road banks.

It is widespread in North America and can be found in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Pogonatum pensilvanicum (Hedw.) P. Beauv.

In this species the plants are small, only 2 to 6 mm tall and dull and brownish, but they are scattered over the surface of a conspicuous velvety green persistent protonema. The leaves are few, growing larger toward stem tip. The leaves are long acuminate and stand erect 2 to 4 mm in length. Like the closely related Polytrichum the leaves possess lamellae, but it is hardly necessary to examine the leaves in such a distinctive species. There are separate male and female plants. The male plants are small and bud like, while the females are best recognized by the presence of the sporophyte which has a seta that is 10 to 35 mm tall with and erect capsule 2.5 to 4 mm in length. This species is most readily recognized in the field when with sporophyte.

A single female shoot surrounded by the persistent protonema and with young sporophyte still with fibrous calyptra (Left), a grouping of fruiting shoots (Middle), and older sporophytes lacking calyptrae (Right).

This is a pioneer species on moist exposed soil, road-cuts, and tip-up mounds.

It is widespread in eastern North America. It is also known from locations in the Caribbean and South America.

Diphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) Mohr

This species is most readily recognized by its unique sporophyte. The setae are not apparent leaving the capsule nestled among a set of long (up to 8 mm) leaves with long spiny brown awn filled by the costa. The capsule is greenish-yellow becoming brown with age. It towers above the surrounding gametophytes. In appearance it looks like a grain of wheat, which gives this moss one of its common names, the “Wheat Grain Moss”, though it is also sometimes called the “Nut Moss” based on other interpretations of what the distinct capsule resembles. The gametophytes are quite small growing in rigid dark-green or often brown to blackish extensive short open turfs. The leaves are 1.3 to 4 mm long with the longer leaves toward the tip of the shoot.

A close-up of a colony of D. foliosum showing the distinct capsules and the long strap-shaped leaves (Left) and a colony D. foliosum growing among shoots of Atrichum.

This species is found on shaded moist soil or humus in hardwood forested sites on shaded banks usually not on recently disturbed sites.

It is widespread in eastern North America and south into Central America.

Climacium dendroides (Hedw.) Web. & Mohr

The species is best recognized by its dendroid or tree-like growth form due to the arrangement of the branches toward the shoot tips. It stands erect 3 to 9 cm tall and in some sites up to 13 cm tall. It is yellow or yellowish-green and quite shiny when dry. The branch leaves are 2 to 3 mm long, with round tips which are toothed and they stand erect on the branches. Under a microscope it is possible to see the abundant branched paraphyllia. The sporophytes are not very common and for this species not very important in identification. The setae is 18 to 45 mm tall with 1.5 to 3 mm long capsules.

Shoots of C. dendroides showing its distinctive tree-like growth form, though it rarely grows as single shoots.

This species is weakly calciphilic and is commonly found in wet or swampy soil, on humus and often in lawns.

This species is found throughout much of the northern portions of North America and in much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Climacium americanum Brid.

Very similar to C. dendroides but found more commonly in southern parts of North America.

Dicranella heteromalla (Hedw.) Schimp.

This species is small growing in yellow to dark-green rather shiny open turfs about 1 cm tall, or sometimes taller. The leaves are falcate-secund with a narrow costa which extends beyond the end of the leaf, which is 2 to 3 mm long. The setae is yellowish and 5 to 15 mm long topped by a 1 to 1.5 mm long curved and asymmetric capsule which is inclined to horizontal, but often sub-erect.

Shoots of D. heteromalla with its long twisted leaves and sporophytes.

It is an acid loving species found on disturbed, moist soils in coniferous forests generally on road banks, along trails and often on tip-up mounds.

It is found throughout North American into the northern portions of South America.

Ditrichum pusillum (Hedw.) Hampe

This species is also quite small, only 4 to 11 mm tall. The leaves are 1.5 to 35 mm long and linear lanceolate in shape. The setae stands 6 to 16 mm tall and becomes reddish with age. The capsule is 1 to 2 mm long, symmetric, and cylindrical and stands erect.

The dense sporophytes of D. pusillum with their erect cylindrical capsules.

This species prefers bare, disturbed, calcium-free soils, often sandy soil frequently found on road banks.

It is known from across much of North America and Europe and is reported from Africa and Asia.

Atrichum angustatum (Brid.) B.S.G.

This species is medium sized with plants standing 10-20, rarely 45 mm tall. The leaves are dark-green and often quite distorted when dry. The leaves have what appears to be a very broad costa upon first examination, but a closer look shows that the costa is covered by long and wavy lamellae which obscure ¼ to ½ of the upper 1/3 of the leaf. The leaves are also undulate, with teeth in rows which correspond to undulations along the back of the leaves which are 3.5 to 7 mm sometimes 9mm long and oblong lanceolate. Under higher magnification the teeth on the margins are mostly double. The sporophyte has setae 10 to 30 mm long and an erect or somewhat inclined, slightly to strongly curved 2.7 to 6.5 mm long capsule.

Vegetative shoots of Atrichum showing the lamellate costa and undulate leaves (Left), a fruiting colony growing on the top of a mineral soil mound (Middle), and a close-up of the sporophytes (Right).

This species is most often found on sandy soil in dry open woods, frequently on disturbed soil, tip-up mounds, tree bases and along trails.

It is widespread in eastern North America and also known from Europe and Asia.

Ceratodon purpureus (Hedw.) Brid.

This species is sometimes quite difficult to identify in the field when not in fruit. But when it has its abundant and characteristic dark, purplish setae (8 to 30 mm) with asymmetric ovoid-cylindric capsule (1.25 to 2 mm) which is inclined to horizontal, it is more readily recognized. A word of caution though, the setae can sometimes be yellow or orange. The gametophytes grow in dense dirty-green, yellow-green, or reddish turfs 0.5 to 2.5 cm tall. The leaves are 1.8 to 2 mm long and acute with strongly reflexed or revolute margins, sometimes nearly to the tip. The leaves can also be somewhat awned and often have irregularly notched margins at the very tip.

C. purpureus with mature sporophytes (Left), young sporophytes (Middle), and more developed sporophytes showing the capsules (Right).

This species is a cosmopolitan weed growing on disturbed ground in dry open areas and sometimes on old roofs.

It is found throughout North America and much of the rest of the world.

Bryum argenteum Hedw.

This species is sometimes called the “Silvery Sidewalk Moss” due to its tendency to form dense, whitish or silvery tufts in the cracks of sidewalks. It is a small plant, only 3 to 12 mm tall. The stems are reddish and forked and thick and very rounded in appearance at the tips (julaceous). This rounded appearance is due to the tightly packed nature of the leaves. The clear upper cells of the leaves are responsible for the distinctive silvery color. The red sporophytes combined with the silvery color of the gametophytes make for a very distinct appearance. The red setae are 8 to 20 mm with 1 to 2 mm long pendulous to pendent capsules, which are usually red at maturity.

B. argenteum growing in the soil accumulated in between paving stones. The capsules are still young and have not yet turned red (Left), and close-ups of the tightly julaceous shoots (Two Right Pictures).

This is another cosmopolitan weed which grows on bare disturbed soils, along roads and paths, and in the cracks of sidewalks. It loves nitrogen and is often found in sites where nitrogen readily accumulates.

This species is widespread in North America.

Additional Species

Pottia truncata (Hedw.) Fürnr. ex B.S.G.

Very small plants, the orange-brown sporophytes stand less than a cm tall. Notice the wide mouth of the capsule.

Eurynchium hians (Hedw.) Sande Lac.

A shoots of E. hians showing the wide-spreading leaves and irregularly pinnate branches. The leaves are nearly as broad as they are long, whereas the L. humile (Amblystegium sp.) has longer and narrower leaves.

Home

All photos were taken by Keith C. Bowman

Last Updated February 24, 2006.