Funaria hygrometrica
” water-measuring cord-moss”
Funaria hygrometrica along a RR track in Powell, Franklin County, Ohio. May 11, 2007.
Funaria hygrometrica along a RR track in Powell, Franklin County, Ohio. May 11, 2007.
Funaria hygrometrica young sporophytes in meadow at Batelle Darby Metro Park, Franklin County, Ohio. January 7, 2012.
Funaria hygrometrica (tall, asymmetric) and Physcomitrium pyriforme) (short, erect) sporophytes.
Batelle Darby Metro Park, Franklin County, Ohio. May 12, 2013.
Funaria hygrometrica mature sporophytes May 12, 2013.
Funaria hygrometrica leaf tip.
How to recognize water-measuring cord-moss: Funaria hygrometrica is a densely tufted acrocarp with a short basal rosette of leaves beneath subtending a towering sporophyte having a long wiry seta and peculiarly slanting asymmetric capsules. These capsules, and the peristomes are particularly distinctive with oblique teeth that fuse with a latticed disk at the middle of the opening to the capsule. The plant is almost always found with sporophytes. The seta twists and untwists as the humidity changes which helps to shake the spores loose.
Where to find water-measuring cord-moss: Funaria hygrometrica occurs on newly exposed soil of abandoned agricultural land, or in burned-over areas.
