Leucobryum glaucum (Hedw.) Ångstr. ex. Fr. - White Pincushion Moss


 

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Leucobryum glaucum - (image 1 of 4)

 

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

 


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 Michael Hough © 2010