Dicranum spurium
(family Dicranaceae)
Dicranum spurium at Symmes Creek, Gallia County, Ohio. June 21, 2008.
Dicranum spurium at Conkle’s Hollow State Nature Preserve, Hocking County, Ohio. January 1, 2014.
Dicranum spurium leaf from Conkle’s Hollow State Nature Preserve, Hocking County, Ohio. January 1, 2014.
How to recognize Dicranum spurium: This moss is a medium sized Dicranum in dull green to brown tufts with broadly ovate-lanceolate 5-7 mm leaves. The leaves are spreading when wet and contorted apices when dry, and often undulate. The leaf is concave below and tubulose above with no ridges on the back of the leaf. The plants do not have the obvious falcate-secund leaves that in other Dicranums lead to the descriptive terms “broom moss”. The leaf cells are papillose on the upper part of leaf on the back, and the alar cells are 2 layered.
Where to find Dicranum spurium: This moss is found in open places on rock ledges or woods and also sandy places and old logs or humus. It is sometimes found with a Cladonia lichen in full sunlight.
