Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Liverworts or Hepatics > Genus Ptilidium > Ptilidium Ciliare Lichen

Ptilidium Ciliare Lichen

Ptilidium ciliare, Nees.

Habit and Habitat.-On fallen logs growing in loosely entangled purple, brown, or dark-green tufts.

Name.-The specific name ciliare, from the Latin cilia, lash, refers to the fine hairs on the margins of the leaves.

Plants (gametopythe).-The plants have stems 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, mostly erect; root hairs few at the base. Branches short, once or twice pinnate.

Leaves.-Crowded, hiding the stem, roundish; lobes lanceshaped, folded toward each other, the front lobe convex and parted half-way down, the back lobe similar, but much smaller; the margins all divided into numerous long hair-like teeth. Under leaves (amphigastra) pressed to the stem, rectangular, nearly as large as the upper, four- to five-lobed with marginal teeth. Leafcells small, roundish, with thick walls.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on separate plants, dioicous.

Perianth.-Pear-shaped, pale, dull yellow, mouth narrow, and margined with small short teeth. The bracts at the base unequally four-lobed with teeth like the leaves.

Spore-case.-Nearly spherical.