EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Explanation:   Deep in the conifer forests of northwest coastal North America resides this tiny but beautiful moss called Menzies' Red-Mouthed Mnium (Mnium spinulosum).  This is a widespread, lush green moss that grows in mats on logs, soil, and conifer needles on the forest floor beneath conifer trees.  It grows in moderately high elevations in darkly shaded groves of Douglas-fir, western hemlock, spruce, fir, and other species.  

Pictured above is the spore capsule or sporophyte which hangs from a long slender stalk.  Guess why this species is called "Red-Mouthed?"  The top of the spore capsule is marked by large, deep red teeth that cover the mouth of the capsule (called the "peristome"), which is characteristic of this species.  

The type of peristome in this species serves to release spores when the teeth part under hydroscopic (water pressure) movement of the teeth cells.  

     
(Click on each image for larger versions)

This species disperses through dissemination of spores and by vegetative fragmentation.

Mosses of family Mniaceae consist of erect-growing plants with club-shaped paraphyses and hexagonal cells of the upper leaf surface, and are sometimes treated as a subfamily of Bryaceae.

Information:  
     Pojar, J., and A. MacKinnon. 1994. Plants of coastal British Columbia including Washington, Oregon & Alaska. Lone Pine Publishing, Vancouver, B.C. 527 pp.
     Vitt, D., J. Marsh, and R. Bovey. 1988. Mosses lichens & ferns of northwest North America. Lone Pine Publishing, Canada. 296 pp.