Friday, March 16, 2007

Pointed spear-moss (Calliergonella cuspidata)


Among the many species of moss, mostly unidentified, colonising Wbx, I noticed the one above today. It is pointed spear-moss (Calliergonella cuspidata), a species I have only just started noticing in the garden here.

Usually a moss of rather wet habitats, Wbx is maybe the equivalent of a dune slack in some respects and, in winter, quite water retentive.

2 comments:

Larry said...

It may surprise you to get a comment after five years, but I just wanted you to know that we have a whole lawn full of C. cuspidata in front of our house here is (are you ready?) Clinton, Washington. That's coastal Pacific Northwest.

Patrick Roper said...

Larry. Thanks for your comment. My bryologist friend Howard Matcham says "This species is found from British Columbia to California and inland to Idaho and Wyoming. Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to Massachusetts, North Carolina and Tennessee; Ohio, Michagan and Iowa in N. America but is probably even more frequent as an introduction over a very wide range. I have seen it in Africa and in the Antipodes."