Taxonomy
Family: Leucobryaceae
Habitat
Moist forests, on wood humus or well-decayed logs or stumps.
Associates
Distribution
Newfoundland to MN, south to FL and LA; also in Europe and Japan.
Morphology
Forming large, coarse, whitish or grayish green cushions 2-9 cm high. Leaves 3-8 mm long, erect to erect-spreading or subsecund, lanceolate and concave, acute or apiculate, usually more or less serrulate at the tip; costa with 2-3 layers of hyaline cells above and 2-4 layers below the cholorocysts on both sides of the median region. Sporophytes rare; setae terminal, to 1.7 cm long, red-brown; capsules to 2 mm long, curved, strongly inclined, strumose at base; annulus absent; calyptra clasping the tip of the seta until maturity.
Notes
A dioicus species, with the male plant dwarfed and growing on or among the leaves of female plants. A related species, L. albidum (Brid. ex P. Beauv.) Lindb., grows in smaller, low, yellow-green cushions less than 1 cm high.
References
Crum, H. 2004. Mosses of the Great Lakes Forest, 4th ed.
The University of Michigan Herbarium. Ann Arbor, MI
Michael Hough © 2010 |