Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Pogonatum > Urn Bearing Haircap Moss

Urn Bearing Haircap Moss

The Urn-bearing Hair-cap Moss, Pogonatum urnigerum, (L.) Beauv.

Habit and habitat.-Pale-green or with a bloom, growing in wide mats but not crowded. On the banks and by streams.

Name.-The specific name urnigerum, urn-bearer, refers to the spore-case.

Plants (gametophyte).-Erect, 1 to 3 inches high, the branches reaching the same height and densely leafy, each branch of the female plant bearing a spore-case. Male plants continue to grow from the centre of the terminal rosette.

Leaves.-Pale-green or brown, lance-shaped, erect when dry, spreading when wet; apex acute; base short, clasping; vein extending slightly beyond the apex of the leaf as an awn; lamellae numerous, 40 to 50; 6 cells high, the terminal oval, with tiny projections (papillose), lower leaves scale-like.

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

Veil (calyptra).-Yellow-brown, covering the spore-case.

Spore-case.-Erect, red-brown, cylindrical or egg-shaped, contracted below the mouth when dry, the surface rough with tiny projections (papillose), the neck nearly smooth.

Pedicel.-Red-yellow, slender, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long.

Lid (operculum).-Broad, conical, beak short and straight, surface rough with tiny projections.

Teeth (peristome).-Thirty-two, symmetrical, short and broad.

Spores. - Mature in autumn and winter.

Distribution.-Universal.