Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Mnium > Mnium Hornum Moss

Mnium Hornum Moss

Mnium hornum, Linn.

Habit and habitat.-Robust in dense tufts, on damp earth in woods, about the roots of trees, and on rocks.

Name.--The specific name, hornum, probably refers to the horny border.

Plant (gametophyte).-The young plants are bright-green, the older are dark-green; steins, 1 to 2 inches high, simple erect; sterile shoots, erect from the base.

Leaves.-The lowest minute, the upper gradually increasing in size, the terminal forming a rosette, all oblong-lance-shaped, apex more or less acute with a sharp little point; base growing slightly down the stern; margin with a strong red border, spiny toothed from below the middle, the teeth in a double row; vein vanishing below the apex, spiny above at the back; cells thickwalled.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on separate plants (dioicous). Male flowers surrounded with a rosette of leaves.

Veil (calyptra).-Split up one side.

Spore-case.-Narrowly oval with a narrow tapering neck somewhat pendulous, finally horizontal, somewhat inflated when empty, pale-yellow with a red rim.

Pedicel (seta).-Solitary, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, arched above.

Lid (operculum).-Conical, tipped with a short, sharp point.

Annulus.-Narrow.

Teeth ( peristome).-As in the genus.

Spores.-Mature in spring.

Distribution.-Europe, Africa, and North America.