Home › Volumes › Mosses and Lichens › How to Know the Lichens and Mosses — What They Are Doing on Rocks and Trees

True Mosses

If plants are small and green, with leafy stems, and have the habit of living in such close proximity as to form velvety cushions, (Ceratodon purpureum) one may suspect them of being mosses, but if they have this habit of growth, or grow in clusters resembling tiny ferns or miniature trees and bear their spores in little cases opening by lids, one may feel confident that they are the true mosses as distinguished from hepatics.