Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Ulota > Curly Leaved Ulota Moss

Curly Leaved Ulota Moss

The Curly-leaved Ulota, Ulota crispa, Brid.

Habit and habitat.-In small dense round cushions, yellow-green on the surface and rust-colour within. Common in mountain woods on trunks and branches of trees, especially beeches, firs and birches.

Name.-The specific name from the Latin crispus, curled; refers to the special curling of the dry leaves.

Plant (gametophyte).-Small, erect.

Leaves.-Linear, lance-shaped from an enlarged oval concave base; apex narrow or hair-like, curled when dry; cells at base long and narrow, wormlike, thick-walled, on the margin enlarged and 4-sided.

Habit of flowering.Male and female flowers on same plan (monoicous) ; male flowerclusters bud-like.

Veil (calyptra).-Yellow, bell-shaped, split at the base, plaited lengthwise and covered with soft hairs.

Spore-case.-Pale-green or light-brown, thin-walled, pearshaped, narrowed end extending almost to the base of the pedicel, constricted under the mouth and deeply grooved when dry and empty.

Pedicel (seta).-Short and erect.

Lid (operculum).-With a comparatively short beak.

Teeth (peristome).-The outer of eight pairs, at first spreading, then recurved, the inner eight, rarely sixteen.

Spores.-Mature in August.

Distribution.-Universal.