Acuminate Pleuridium Moss

Description

These little mosses form mid-green or brownish-tinged patches which can be dense, but are often open aggregations of shoots. They are short, to 1 cm, but often less, with the upper leaves much longer than the lower (about 4 mm as opposed to about 1.5 mm), usually erect and occasionally slightly turned to one side. The leaves are spearhead-shaped, tapering relatively gradually from a base that is egg-shaped to a long, fine tip in the upper leaves where it is composed mainly of the excurrent nerve. Capsules are common, held on a very short seta, 1 mm long, hidden between the upper leaves and are shortly oval with a blunt point. P. acuminatum has naked male organs in the leaf axils, whereas P. subulatum bears them on dwarf branches (see top right photograph). The latter are easily seen with a hand lens, making identification relatively straightforward, although plants with intermediate characters do apparently occur.