Pleuridium Moss

This photograph was was taken at the site where this moss was found in the United States for the first time. We were on a Spring Bryophyte outing and visited a place where sterile plants of what turned out to be this taxon had been seen a month earlier by Paul Wilson and others. The fertile condition enabled these plants to be identified as Pleuridium mexicanum, new to the Untied States. (See The Bryologist 110(3):510-513. 2007). This is an overview image, the plants are the pale green pencil like stems to the left of the coin, mixed in with an upright green acrocarpous moss and a matted small dark liverwort.

On sandy soil in chaparral, Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara, County California, March 2007. This photograph was was taken at the site where this moss was found in the United States for the first time. We were on a Spring Bryophyte outing and visited a place where sterile plants of what turned out to be this taxon had been seen a month earlier by Paul Wilson and others. The fertile condition, as seen here, enabled these plants to be identified as Pleuridium mexicanum, new to the Untied States. See The Bryologist 110(3):510-513. 2007.

On sandy soil in chaparral, Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara, County California, March 2007. This photograph was was taken at the site where this moss was found in the United States for the first time. We were on a Spring Bryophyte outing and visited a place where sterile plants of what turned out to be this taxon had been seen a month earlier by Paul Wilson and others. The fertile condition, as seen here, enabled these plants to be identified as Pleuridium mexicanum, new to the Untied States. See The Bryologist 110(3):510-513. 2007. The dark mat growing under these moss stems is a small liverwort

This is either Pleuridium subulatum or P. acuminatum. It is a small 'ephemeral' moss seen here in short moss turf. A small piece was harvested and this photograph was obtained the same day back at CYO camp but in situ on the turf piece. A second even smaller moss, Ephemerum serratum, can be seen with capsules at top center. The moss plants at bottom right with capsules may be Ephemerum and/or Phascum cuspidatum.