Norway Bryoxiphium Moss

Description

Bryoxiphium norvegicum is a perennial moss, usually bright-green, shiny, occasionally lightgreen to brownish green, with very flat unbranched stems 4-30 mm long and about 0.5-1.5 mm wide covered with crowded and scale-like overlapping keeled conduplicate (folded) leaves 1-2 mm long in two rows. The leaves have a strong midrib, and the narrow tips are twisted. In welldeveloped plants, these stems are sometimes mistaken for grass seedlings (Britton 1913; Crum & Anderson 1981). The spore-bearing capsule is about 1 mm long, cylindrical to subglobose, and has a stalk (seta) about 2 mm long that is usually somewhat curved.