Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Sphaerangium > Sphaerangium Muticum Moss

Sphaerangium Muticum Moss

Sphaerangium Muticum MossIndividual plants are more or less separated.

Habit and habitat. On bare clay or sandy soil.

Name.-The specific name muticum, blunt, refers to the apex of
the spore-case.

Plants (gametophyte).-Like yellow-brown buds 1/8 of an inch high.

Leaves.-The lower and middle oval and long taper-pointed; apex
recurved, with a short sharp point; vein passing beyond the apex; the
upper two or three, twice as large as the lower; apex irregularly toothed.

Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on the same plant (monoicous).

Veil (calyptra).-Very small, erect, conical, with a long beak.

Spore-case.-Orange, spherical, immersed. Pedicel.-Very short.

Lid (operculum). -None.

Teeth (peristome).-None.

Spores.-Mature in winter and early spring.

Distribution.-Europe, Africa, and North America.