Common Moss

Reference: http://www.perspective.com/nature/plantae/polytrichum.html

* Identification- 

    The authority who described the species is Joannis Hedwig in "Species Muscorum Frondosorum" in        the year 1801. 

For additional information on identifying mosses, click HERE!

*  Geography-

Polytrichum  commune

*I was unable to locate good specimens of this species on my own, but it should exist at Sam's Farm because commune does occur locally. 

* Natural History- 

    "Plants are very large, loosely cespitose, dark red:  leaves open, recurve, very long-sheathing, membranaceous, whitish at base; borders narrow, sharply and densely serrate to the enlarged base; borders of the laellae papillose; perichaetial leaves erect, very long-sheathing; awned:  calyptera very hairy, descending below the capsule:  capsule sharply angled, long-pedicellate, light brown, horizontal when dry and empty; lid flattened-convex at base, conical-apiculate, with red borders" (Lesquereux, 266).    

    "Plants forming dense sods, these sometimes covering rather extensive areas, dark olive-green; stems 10-40cm long, unbranched or very rarely forked, 3-angled in the creeping portion, 5 or more angled in the leafy portion; rhizoidous only on basal portion of stem; leaves spreading or recurved when moist, about 1.5mm wide and 3mm long; apex acuminate, brown or red, serrate; margin serrate to the sheath, plane, of about 1 row of cells; costa excurrent, sharply serrate on back near tip; lamellae 40-70, entire or slightly crenellate, with a central longitudinal groove, 4-9 cells high; in cross section the terminal cells slightly wider, depressed in the middle, the outer wall not or little thicker; cells of the median region of the leaf sheath linear, 95-160 micrometers long, 9-13 micrometers wide; cells of the unistratose border squarish or transversely rectangular or elliptic, about 9-19 micrometers in longest diameter.  Plants unisexual:  male plants shorter, with shorter leaves, repeatedly proliferous from the center; male bracts broadly obovate, shortly acuminate; perichaetial leaves up to 20mm long, with long sheath, membranous.   With few or no lamellae, aristate; calyptra entirely covering the capsule, yellow or brownish with a silky luster; seta 6-12 cm long.  Thick, slightly twisted to the right, reddish-brown, shining; capsule erect to horizontal, sharply 4-angled or rarely 5-6-angled, reddish-brown; urn almost cubical to 1.5 times as long as thick, 3-6mm.   Long; neck deeply constricted; apophysis very distinct; lid depressed-conic; beak 1mm long, straight or slightly curved; annulus wanting; epidermal cells mostly 4-6-angled, thick-walled, about 35 micrometers, each with a conical papilla bearing a small elliptic to cleft-like central thin spot; stomata very large, 2-celled; basal membrane of the peristome about 100 micrometers high; teeth 64, about equal, about 250 micrometers long; spores 8-10 micrometers, smooth, yellowish" (Grout, 124). 

Click HERE to link to a helpful web site featuring a glossary of botanical terms.

* How to Encounter-

   "On damp soil, common along  margins of ponds or lakes.  Greenland to Yukon and Alaska, southward to North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wyoming, Arizona Idaho and California; S. America; Europe; Asia; Africa; Oceana.  P. commune likes wet situations.   But the wet places often dry in summer, in some seasons earlier than in others, thus hindering development and resulting in small plants with small capsules" (Grout, 124).

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