Ceratodon purpureus |
Ceratodon purpureus subsp. purpureus |
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ceratodon moss, fire-moss |
ceratodon moss |
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Habit | Plants in open to dense tufts, turfs, or mats, green, dark green, brownish green, light green or yellow-green, usually darker proximally, often tinged reddish brown or purple. | Plants in open to dense tufts, turfs, or mats, green, dark green, to brownish green, rarely yellow-green. | ||||||||
Stems | (0.2–)1–3(–4) cm. |
(0.3–)0.6–1.4(–4) cm. |
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Leaves | crowded, erect-patent to contorted or somewhat crisped, rarely straight when dry, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or triangular-lanceolate, 0.35–2.8 mm, margins recurved to near apex or rarely plane, irregularly serrate to uneven or smooth distally, apices acute to short-acuminate or, rarely, obtuse; costa strong, sub-percurrent to excurrent, sometimes as a long, smooth awn, medial laminal cells (6.5–)8–12(–14) µm, cell walls even, usually of medium thickness, often somewhat thicker and rounded at the cell angles. |
erect-patent to contorted or somewhat crisped when dry, rarely forming a comal tuft, patent to erect-patent to spreading when wet, 0.35–2.8 mm, distal margins usually toothed; costa percurrent to slightly excurrent. |
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Seta | 1–3(–4) cm, various shades of red, orange, or yellow. |
usually red to dark brown. |
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Capsule | oblong to long-cylindric, (1–)2–2.5(–3) mm, smooth to strongly sulcate when dry; free to united at their nodes, finely papillose to spinulose-papillose, dark red and bordered to completely pale and absent borders. |
usually inclined to horizontal, (0.8–)1.3–1.8(–3) mm, usually arcuate, red to red-brown to purplish to, occasionally, light brown, deeply sulcate when dry, usually strumose, occasionally light brown. |
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Spores | (10–)11–14(–17) µm. |
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Peristome | teeth usually bordered, usually with 8–16 articulations. |
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Ceratodon purpureus |
Ceratodon purpureus subsp. purpureus |
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Phenology | Capsules mature early summer–late fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Various habitats, but most common on open soil, also rock ledges, tree bases, roof tops, old wood, a common colonizer of soil following fires | |||||||||
Elevation | low to high elevations | |||||||||
Distribution |
Nearly worldwide
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AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Mexico; Eurasia; Greenland |
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Discussion | Subspecies 4 (3 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 27, p. 446. | FNA vol. 27, p. 447. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Ditrichaceae > Ceratodon | Ditrichaceae > Ceratodon > Ceratodon purpureus | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Dicranum purpureum, C. purpurascens, C. purpureus var. purpurascens, C. purpureus var. xanthopus | Dicranum purpurascens | ||||||||
Name authority | (Hedwig) Bridel: Bryol. Univ. 1:480. (1826) | unknown | ||||||||
Web links |
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