Red Collar Moss
The Red Collarmoss, Splachnum rubrum, Linn., l. c.Habit and habitat.Chiefly on dung in peat bogs.
Name.-The specific name, Latin rubrum, red, refers to the colour.
Plant (gametophyte).-Living but one year, small, the male plants smaller.
Leaves. -Large, open; apex recurved; base narrowed from an enlarged middle, above more abruptly narrowed to a long taper-point; margin distinctly serrate from below the middle; leaves of the male plant smaller.
Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on separate plants (dioicous).
Veil (calyptra).-Small, conical, slightly split or mostly entire at the base, soft and falling early.
Spore-case.-Small, oval and ending abruptly at the summit as if cut off, thin, membranous and dirty-yellow.
Pedicel (seta).-Very long and red, enlarged just below the spore-case to form a purple, bell-shaped or umbrella-like portion (apophysis).
Lid.-Highly convex.
Teeth (peristome).-Sixteen, large, densely cross-barred, joined in pairs at the base and sometimes at the apex.
Spores.-Small, mature in summer.
Distribution.-In the Rockies and in Maine, also in Europe.