Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Eurhynchium > Hypnum Eurhynchium Boscii Moss

Hypnum Eurhynchium Boscii Moss

(Eurhynchium) Boscii, Schwaegr.

Habit and habitat.-A very beautiful and easily identified thick soft-golden cushions or in loose thin mats on the ground among grass or on the ground and on rocks in shady places and open fields.

Name.-The specific name Boscii was given by D. Fridericus Schwaegrichen, in honour of Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc, a distinguished naturalist.

Plants.-Stems prostrate, somewhat pinnately branching ; branches mostly simple, inflated, blunt, and cylindrical by the arrangement of the leaves.

Leaves.-Thin, dry and shining, closely overlapping, oblong-oval, very concave ; apex narrowed to a twisted slender point; base clasping ; margin finely serrate to the base ; cells narrowly linear, those of the base shorter, thick and yellow-brown.

Leaves at the base of the pedicel.-Narrowly long taper-pointed.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female plant (monoicous).

Veil (calyptra).-Split up one side.

Spore-case.-Brown, oblong, erect-incurved, rowed into the pedicel, strongly arched under the mouth when dry.

Pedicel (seta).-Smooth, red to red-brown, slightly twisted to the right.

Lid (operculum).-Conic, I the length of the urn.

Teeth (peristome).-As Hypnum.

Annulus.-Compound.

Spores.-Mature in autumn.

Distribution.-Vermont to Florida and Louisiana, west to Missouri and Illinois.