Common hair-moss (Polytrichum commune)

Hair-moss family (Polytrichaceae)

Moss forming dark green carpet. Stem straight, can reach 20 cm in height. Leaves distributed quite sparsely on stem, lanceolate and up to 12 mm in length. Dioicous. Male stem has „splash-cup” antheridia at apex. Seta red-brown, length 4-12 cm. Capsule straight, 4-6-angled with calyptra bearing gold-yellow fibres. Moss present in moist, acid substrata, grows mainly in moist coniferous forest, but also in mixed oak-spruce forest and boreal spruce bog-forest, and more rarely in marshy coniferous or birch forest. Subject to Partial Protection.

Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski.