Home › Volumes › Mosses and Lichens › Herbarium
The Curled-leaf Mosses
Genus ULOTA, Mohr
The species of the Genus Ulota usually grow in small rounded cushions, which live year after year on trees but never on soil. They are common on the trunks and small stems of mountain trees.
The leaves are narrowly lance-shaped from a broad oval base and are usually curled when dry. It is this character which gives them their generic name from ?, curled.
The cells are very narrow, coloured and thickened along the median line while the marginal cells below are transparent in several rows.
The veils are conical bell-shaped, usually covered with erect, yellow hairs; they are lobed at the base and folded lengthwise in plaits.
The spore-cases are exserted on straight pedicels; they are pear-shaped, narrowed at the base into a long neck, 8-striate and twisted to the left when dry.
The peristome is single or double, the outer of the sixteen white teeth usually united in pairs; the inner of 8 to 16 narrow processes alternate with the teeth or wanting.
There are fifty-seven species in all, sixteen in North America.
The Curly-leaved Ulota, Ulota crispa, Brid.--See Plate XV.
Habit and habitat.--In small dense round cushions, yellow-green on the surface and rust-colour within. Common in mountain woods on trunks and branches of trees, especially beeches, firs and birches.
Name.--The specific name from the Latin crispus, curled, refers to the special curling of the dry leaves.
Plant (gametophyte).--Small, erect.
Leaves.--Linear, lance-shaped from an enlarged oval concave base; apex narrow or hair-like, curled when dry; cells at base long and narrow, worm-like, thick-walled, on the margin enlarged and 4-sided.
Habit of flowering.--Male and female flowers on same plant (monoicous); male flower-clusters bud-like.
Veil (calyptra).--Yellow, bell-shaped, split at the base, plaited length wise and covered with soft hairs.
Spore-case.--Pale-green or light-brown, thin-walled, pear-shaped, narrowed end extending almost to the base of the pedicel, constricted under the mouth and deeply grooved when dry and empty.
Pedicel (seta).--Short and erect.
Lid (operculum).--With a comparatively short beak.
Teeth (peristome).--The outer of eight pairs, at first spreading, then recurved, the inner eight, rarely sixteen.
Spores.--Mature in August.
Distribution.--Universal.
The Bud-leaved Ulota, Ulota phyllantha, Brid.
Ulota phyllantha grows in dense cushions 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches high, green or yellow above and rich red or brown below.
The leaves are acutely pointed with percurrent vein, upon the apex of which are abundant red-brown, club-shaped and jointed gemmae which have suggested the specific name from the Greek ?, a leaf, and ?, a flower or young bud.
This moss has been found on the highest plant-line of Chim-borazo as well as close to sea-level, and is widely distributed over the world.
Hutchins's Ulota; Ulota Hutchinsiae, Schimp.
Habit and habitat.--The plant grows in dark red-brown tufts, rigid and fragile. They are common on granite rocks in the mountains.
Name.--The specific name was given by Wilhelm Philipp Schimper in honour of Miss Hutchins, who first collected the plants on the lake shore near Bantry, Ireland.
Leaves.--Close and overlapping like shingles, rigid and appressed when dry; erect or slightly spreading when moist; oblong, lance-shaped; apex obtuse; base oval or oblong; margins turned back; vein strong; cells, the basal linear or worm-like, the marginal somewhat 4-sided, the upper small.
Habit of flowering.--Male and female flowers on the same plant (monoicous); the male flower-clusters bud-like.
Veil (calyptra).--Very hairy.
Spore-case.--Oval, narrowed to a very long neck 8-furrowed the whole length, hardly contracted at the mouth.
Pedicel (seta).--Long.
Lid (operculum).--Conical, taperpointed.
Teeth (peristome).--Eight; long, lance-shaped, in pairs, entire or split at the apex, reflexed when dry; the inner segments eight, a little shorter than the teeth.
Spores.--Mature in summer.
Distribution.--Common in mountainous regions