Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Pogonatum > Short Leaved Haircap Moss

Short Leaved Haircap Moss

The Short-leaved Hair-cap Moss, Pogonatum brachyphyllum, (Michx.) Beauv.

Habit and habitat.-The short-leaved Pogonatum is found on sandy or loamy soil. The plants do not grow close together, but scattered somewhat, on a persistent green felt of slender algalike threads.

Name.-The specific name brachyphyllum is compounded of the Greek for; short, and; a leaf.

Plants (gametophyte).-Olive-green or dark-brown when old; stems rigid, short, 2/5 to 4/5 of an inch long.

Leaves.-In rosettes at the summit of the stems, curved, appressed and brown when dry, very short, strap-shaped; apex blunt; margin entire; vein broad; lamella numerous, 6 to 7 cells deep, irregular, the terminal cell smooth, elliptic in section; base clear with large cells.

Spore-case with veil.

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

Veil (calyptra).-Hairy, dirty-brown, reaching to the middle of the spore-case.

Spore -case.-Yellow-brown, erect or curved, broadest at the mouth, rough with tiny projections.

Pedicel (seta).-Erect, short 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, twisted.

Lid (operculum).-Flat, beak short, blunt-pointed.

Teeth ( peristome).-Simple and blunt. Thirty-two in number.

Spores.-Mature in winter.

Distribution.-Pine barrens of New Jersey, south to Florida and Louisiana.