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         Introduction to
Moss ID Links ID1 (Intro to Plants) ID2 (Bryophytes) ID3 (Life Cycle) ID4 (Divsions) ID5 (Books & Gear) ID6 (Leaves) ID7 (Cells) ID8 (Sporophytes) ID9 (peculiar Sphagnum) ID10 (peculiar Atrichum) ID11 (peculiar Fissidens) ID12. (Key Overview) ID13 (Platygyrium start) ID14 (Platygyrium finish) ID15 (Funaria start) ID16 (Funaria finish) ID17 (Orthotrichum start) ID18 (Orthotrichum finish) ID19 (OH Atlas & FQAI) ID20. (Plag. cusp.) ID21 (Ambl. vari., Anom. Atte.) ID22 (Plat. repe., Ento. sedu.) ID23 (Cera. purp., Anom. rost.) ID24 (Clim. amer., Thui. deli.) ID25 (Atri angu.) |
INTRO TO MOSS ID (p. 25)
(10 most common OH mosses) Atrichum angustatum  According to Crum and Anderson (1981) Atrichum angustatum grows "on rather dry, more or less exposed, light sterile soils, espscially in disturbed habitats such as roadbanks or mounds caused by windthrows in open woods." Here on a bank high above Alum Creek at the Delaware Wildlife Area in Delaware, Ohio, on dry organic soil in a sparsely wooded patch, a variety of mosses predominate.  Mosses cover the ground on open wooded bluff along Alum Creek, Delaware County, OH, late April.
The predominant mosses here are Dicranum scoparium, Leucobryum glaucum, and Polytrichum ohioense. There are also distinctive yellowish patches of Atrichum angustatum here and there.
 Atrichum angustatum (circled) on the ground with other, more abundant mosses.
Atrichum is a fairly robust
acrocarp. The genus has lanceolate leaves that are delicate, not
leathery and rigid like those of the other common genus in the
Polytrichaceae, Polytrichum. Also, the lamellae covering the costa are much less extensive across the leaf than in Polytrichum.
 Atrichum angustatum, late April. Microscopically, Atrichum angustatum
is distinguished from the other Atrichum species (i.e., Atrichum undulatum in the traditional broad sense, including the very common A. oerstedianum)
by having leaves that are smaller (less than 1 mm wide) and lamellae
that obscure a greater portion of the leaf when viewed from above
(covering 1/4 to 1/2 the leaf in the upper third, as compared with less
than 1/4 in the other species).
  Atrichum angustatum leaf from above (left)
and cross-section (right).
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