A really very characteristic group of mosses, the genus Fissidens often being mistaken for leafy liverworts by beginning students due to the complanate (flattened) shoots, and the leaves in two-ranks.
However careful examination shows the leaves have an obvious nerve and leafy liverworts NEVER (never, never, never!) have a nerve, so these are acrocarpous mosses.
The leaves are complanate and two-ranked with an adnate (fused) flap of tissue forming a pocket hence the common name “pocket mosses“.
The capsule usually terminal or occasionally lateral, calyptra cap- or mitre-shaped.
The capsule and peristome is close to Dicranella hence the BBS field guide places Fissidens in the Dicranales, here Dr M keeps it as a separate order because the morphology is so characteristic.
About 200 species world-wide.
Fissidens taxifolius is a very common moss of a range of usually base-rich habitats but usually on soil: woodland, arable fields, ditches, tracks and chalk grassland.
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- Fissidens taxifolius
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- Complanate leaves with clear central nerve
February 25, 2014
