Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Funaria

Genus Funaria

Genus FUNARIA, Schreb.

The species of the Genus Funaria are short, simple, or branching, growing in clusters on the ground. The leaves are variable; with loose transparent cells. The spore-cases are pearshaped, erect and symmetrical, or oblique and curved on long pedicels, straight or arched above.

The pedicels twist one about another when dry, a habit suggesting the generic name Funaria, from the Latin fun-is, a cord. The lids are plano-convex. Sometimes there is a compound annulus which rolls back as the lid falls.

The teeth are sometimes rudimentary but more generally they are double, the outer sixteen obliquely curving to the right and connected at the apex by a small mesh-like disk. The outer surface of the teeth is pale and granulose and the inner face is marked with prominent purple crossbars.

The inner membrane is divided into sixteen more or less rudimentary segments opposite to the outer teeth and adhering at the base. They are yellow and lance-shaped with longitudinal median line.

The spore-sac is much smaller than the spore-case and is attached to it by loosely entangled filaments. The spores are often very large.

Seventy-nine species are known in all, fourteen being found in North America.

Pale Funaria Moss
Water Measuring Cord Moss