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Collar Mosses

Genus SPLACHNUM, Linn.

The species of the Genus Splachnum are easily recognised by the extraordinary enlargement of the pedicel at the base of the spore-cases. They are perennial and grow in tufts, invariably on the dung of animals. The branches are soft and slender with broadly lance-shaped leaves, the lower distant and open; the upper tufted; all with a vein.

The name is the Greek, used by Dioscorides for some lichen or non-flowering plant.

The spore-cases are small, oval or short-cylindrical with convex mammillate lids, and a central column (columella) capped and generally exserted after the falling of the lid.

The pedicels are long and very much enlarged under the spore-case, the enlarged portion (apophysis) increasing after maturity and becoming pear-shaped, round or umbrella-like and diversely coloured. There are sixteen linear teeth in pairs (geminate), orange-coloured and formed of two layers, the outer thicker and covered with tiny protuberances. The spores are minute.

Eight species are known in all, five of them in North America.

The Red Collarmoss, Splachnum rubrum, Linn., l. c.

Habit and habitat.--Chiefly on dung in peatbogs.

Name.--The specific name, Latin rubrum, red, refers to the colour.

Plant (gametophyte).--Living but one year, small, the male plants smaller.

Leaves.--Large, open; apex recurved; base narrowed from an enlarged middle, above more abruptly narrowed to a long taper-point; margin distinctly serrate from below the middle; leaves of the male plant smaller.

Habit of flowering.--Male and female flowers on separate plants (dioicous).

Veil (calyptra).--Small, conical, slightly split or mostly entire at the base, soft and falling early.

Spore-case.--Small, oval and ending abruptly at the summit as if cut off, thin, membranous and dirty-yellow.

Pedicel (seta).--Very long and red, enlarged just below the spore-case to form a purple, bell-shaped or umbrella-like portion (apophysis).

Lid.--Highly convex.

Teeth (peristome).--Sixteen, large, densely cross-barred, joined in pairs at the base and sometimes at the apex.

Spores.--Small, mature in summer.

Distribution.--In the Rockies and in Maine, also in Europe.

The Yellow Collar-moss, Splachnum luteum, Linn., l. c.

The Yellow Collar-moss differs from the Red Collar-moss in having the margins of the leaves not so coarsely toothed and in having the enlarged portion of the pedicel under the spore-case convex, umbrella-like, bright-yellow, and 1/2 an inch in diameter. The pedicel is often six inches long.

The name is from the Latin luteum, a weed, probably a yellow one as the derivatives all signify "yellow." This moss is also found on dung in bogs. The spores are mature in autumn.