Funaria-hygrometrica_4b

Description:

Funaria hygrometrica, Hedwig, syn.: Funaria sphaerocarpa Mll.Hal.Family: FunariaceaeEN: Common Cord-moss, Bonfire Moss, Funaria Moss DE: Wetteranzeigendes Drehmoos, Echtes DrehmoosSlo.: navadni vlagomerDat.: May 4. 2021Lat.: 46.35938 Long.: 13.69991Code: Bot_1365/2021_DSC2499 Habitat: Abandoned outdoor fire place near a former farmhouse; pasture, now partly overgrown with bushes (Corylus avellana dominant) and scattered trees (Fraxinus ornus, Ostrya carpinifolia dominant); calcareous ground; locally almost flat terrain; warm, sunny, dry place; exposed to direct rain, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevations 615 m (2020 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil mixed with residue charcoal.Place: Lower Trenta valley, right bank of river Soa; between villages Soa and Trenta; near Soa 48 abandoned cottage, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC. Comment: Funaria hygrometrica is a colonist of bare, disturbed soils; it can be frequently found on abandoned outdoor fireplaces and bonfire sites. It frequently forms extensive carpets, which are rather loose than dense. The species is easy to be recognized if sporophytes (stalks bearing capsules containing spores when ripe) are present and this is very often the case. If the plants are sterile, determination becomes much more difficult. The most characteristic are swan-neck shaped seta (stalks), which are much, much longer than tiny green part of the plant and by delicate, intensely asymmetric calyptra (thin, pointing, 'protecting' shields of the young capsules, which fall of before the capsules become mature). Each capsule stalk is moisture sensitive, curling when dry and unwinding when wet (note the Latin species name 'hygrometrica' measuring air humidity). Ref.:(1) Ian Atherton, ed., Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland - a field guide, British Bryological Society (2010), p 561. (2) M. Nebel, G. Philippi, eds., Die Mosse Baden-Wurttembergs, Band 1., (2000), Ulmer, p 475. (3) V. Wirth, R. Duell, Farbatlas Flechten und Moose, Ulmer, (2000), p 250.