Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Anomodon > Anomodon Apiculatus Moss

Anomodon Apiculatus Moss

Anomodon apiculatus, Bruch & Schimp.

Habit and habitat.-Loosely and widely tufted on trees and rocks in mountains.

Name.-The specific name apiculatus from the Latin apex, apicis, refers to the short-pointed leaves.

Plants (gametophyte).-Green, with a bloom, dirty-red when old. Primary stems prostrate and whip-like ; secondary stems straight, simple or divided at the base.

Leaves.-Two-ranked, tongue-shaped, thick, opaque ; apex pointed; margin wavy; vein transparent, vanishing below the apex; surface covered with tiny protuberances; base oblong-oval with ear-like and fringed appendages; cells dense, minute, round.

Leaves at the base of the pedicel (perichaetial leaves).-Long and sheathing, tongueshaped toward the apex.

Habit of flowering. -Male and female flowers on separate plants, (dioicous).

Veil (calyptra).-Split up one side.

Spore-case.-Egg-shaped or elliptical.

Pedicel (seta).-Short.

Lid (operculum).-Conic, beaked.

Teeth ( peristome).-Narrowly lance-shaped and awl-shaped, cross-barred and knotty. Segments of the inner membrane very short from a very narrow base, sometimes wanting.

Annulus.-None.

Spores.-Mature in autumn.

Distribution.-North America, Europe, Asia.