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Fissidens incurva ?

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:25 am
by MWP admin
Moss of the week!

I hope I got it right despite the Genus relies on very ambiguous characters such as the margin of the leaf. Well, i have identified this as Fissidens incurva. it was lying on lowr parts of a Rubble wall in an a clump of accumulated soil. It was shetered, partially shaded, not very damp location (quite dry actually, but maybe becasue of the wind during these 2 days).

Capsule incurved, 1-2mm only (reminds me some part of my dog!)

There was a tug of war beteen viridulus and crispus, but on the whole, the morphology suits best fo incurva. The cells were roughly 8micrometers.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:38 pm
by valerandi
Great, I agree with you.

It is difficult to tell all these species apart and in fact the name has now changed as follows:

Fissidens viridulus (Sw. ex anon.) Wahlenb. var. incurvus (Starke ex Röhl.) Waldh.

It is one of the easier mosses to identify when it has sporophytes due to the way the capsules are bent away from the vertical position. It is a moss that grows on soil not rock as you rightly noted.

Best wishes

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:05 pm
by MWP admin
Thanks, quite glad to get it right. I must make a correction, the capule is smaller, 0.5-1.0mm long.