Taxonomy
Family: Leskeaceae
Habitat
Calcareous substrates; typically on bark at the base of trees or on logs, stumps, rocks, and occasionally on soil.
Associates
Distribution
Widespread in eastern North America, west to CO, NM, and AZ, south into Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Jamaica. Also in Europe and Asia.
Morphology
Robust, coarse-textured, mat forming pleurocarp. Branches drooping; secondary stems spreading, freely branched, with many branches tapered, usually decurved when dry and erect-spreading and complanate when moist. Leaves sharp-pointed but not ending in a hair point; margins plane; leaf cells pluripapillose; inner basal cells oblong, smooth, pellucid. Setae to 2.7 cm; capsules 2-3 mm long, cylindric, smooth, light brown; annulus lacking, operculum obliquely rostrate; calyptra smooth.
Notes
The most common species of Anomodon. Has a somewhat feathery appearance when moist. Often found at the base of sugar maples in calcareous woodlands.
References
Crum, H. 2004. Mosses of the Great Lakes Forest, 4th ed.
The University of Michigan Herbarium. Ann Arbor, MI
© Michael Hough 2010 |