Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Mosses > Genus Webera > Webera Nutans Moss

Webera Nutans Moss

Webera Nutans MossWebera nutans, Hedw.

Habit and habitat.-This pretty moss is common, growing in soft cushions on moist ground, in peat bogs and swamps and in fissures of rocks.

Name.-The specific name nutans, the Latin for "nodding," describes the spore-case.

Plant (gametophyte).-Yellow-green; stem slender and flexible, 1/2 to 2 inches high.

Leaves.-The lower ovate-lanceolate, margin entire; the upper linear-lanceolate, serrate at the apex; vein thick, reddish, glossy, vanishing below the apex.

Habit of flowering. -Male and female flowers on the same plant (monoicous).

Spore-case.-Oblong-ovate with a broad opening, yellowbrown, short-necked, inclined or pendent.

Pedicel.-Glossy red, often two inches high.

Lid (operculum).-Highly convex, with a tiny nipple.

Teeth (peristome).-Dark orange, pale and thread-like at the apex, the segments of the inner membrane pale-yellow, split, slender segments (cilia) 2 to 3 strongly jointed, as long as the teeth.

Annulus.-Large, rolling back as the lid falls.

Spores.-Mature in summer.

Distribution. -Almost universal.