Tortula Moss

Erect, perennial herb, up to 1 m tall, branched with conspicuously elongated fruiting branches; stern quadrangular, pubescent with hooked hairs, especially at nodes. Leaves ovate, ovate-triangular to elliptic, (2-) 3-6 (-7.5) cm long, (1.5-) 2-5 cm broad, crenate-serrate, obtuse, subcordate or subtruncate at the base, pubescent with hooked hairs; petiole 10-20 (-30) mm long. Spicate racemes 10-20 cm long, increasing up to 30 cm in fruit, interrupted, distantly flowered. Flowers white, rarely violaceous, c. 1 cm across, subsessile. Calyx-tube cylindrical, minutely toothed, 6-8 mm long, 2-2.5 mm broad, increasing up to 8 mm in breadth in fruit and becoming almost globose with narrow acutish mouth, persistent, pubescent with hooked hairs. Corolla 8-12 mm long, tube c. as long or slightly exceeding the calyx; limb 2-lipped with 5, unequal lobes. Fruit 4-5 mm long, broadly obcordate, splitting into 2, glabrous but echinulate and pitted pyrenes with 1-2 seeds in each, enclosed within inflated, persistent calyx.

Distribution: India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Fl.Per.: Most of the year.