Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Ulota > Hutchins Ulota Moss

Hutchins Ulota Moss

Hutchins's Ulota; Ulota Hutchinsiae, Schimp.

Habit and habitat.-The plant grows in dark red-brown tufts, rigid and fragile. They are common on granite rocks in the mountains.

Name.-The specific name was given by Wilhelm Philipp Schimper in honour of Miss Hutchins, who first collected the plants on the lake shore near Bantry, Ireland.

Leaves.-Close and overlapping like shingles, rigid and appressed when dry; erect or slightly spreading when moist; oblong, lance-shaped; apex obtuse; base oval or oblong; margins turned back; vein strong: cells, the basal linear or worm-like, the marginal somewhat 4-sided, the upper small.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on the same plant (monocious) ; the male flowerclusters bud-like.

Veil (calyptra).-Very hairy.

Spore-case. Oval, narrowed to a very long neck 8-furrowed the whole length, hardly contracted at the mouth.

Pedicel (seta).-Long.

Lid (operculum).-Conical, taper-pointed.

Teeth (peristome).-Eight; long, lance-shaped, in pairs, entire or split at the apex, reflexed when dry; the inner segments eight, a little shorter than the teeth.

Spores.-Mature in summer.

Distribution.-Common in mountainous regions.