Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Ulota

Genus Ulota

Genus UlotaGenus ULOTA, Mohr

The species of the Genus Ulota usually grow in small rounded cushions, which live year after year on trees but never on soil. They are common on the trunks and small stems of mountain trees.

The leaves are narrowly lance-shaped from a broad oval base and are usually curled when dry. It is this character which gives them their generic name from the Greek for; curled.

The cells are very narrow, coloured and thickened along the median line while the marginal cells below are transparent in several rows.

The veils are conical bell-shaped, usually covered with erect, yellow hairs; they are lobed at the base and folded lengthwise in plaits.

The spore-cases are exserted on straight pedicels; they are
pear-shaped, narrowed at the base into a long neck, 8-striate
and twisted to the left when dry.

The peristome is single or double, the outer of the sixteen
white teeth usually united in pairs; the inner of 8 to 16 narrow
processes alternate with the teeth or wanting.

There are fifty-seven species in all, sixteen in North America.


Bud Leaved Ulota Moss
Curly Leaved Ulota Moss
Hutchins Ulota Moss