Common Name: The Delicate Fern Moss

Habitat:
A terrestrial moss usually found growing on moist, shaded soil, humus, rocks, logs, or stumps. It may also be found growing at the moist base of trees (906, Anderson).

Seasonality:
May be tardily deciduous and can be found with sporophytes in Spring.

Distribution:
Thuidium is widely distributed. It can be found in Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia, and Asia. It has also been documented in Alaska, S. Dakota, Iowa, British Columbia, the Yukon, N. Carolina to Michigan, and Newfoundland to Manitoba. This cosmopolitan moss may even be found in Mexico to South America!

Gametophyte Appearance:
As it’s common name suggests, the gametophyte resembles a tiny fern. These moss may be green to yellow in color and their growth habit form mats(253, Crum). The stems are monopodially branched. They have tiny branched threads called paraphyllia. They also have small bumps covering their stem and cell surface called papillae. The stem and branch leaves are differentiated and can be distinguished with a microscope. Each branch is twice-pinnately branched. The leaves posses a single costa, or midrib, with short lamellae protruding from it(253, Crum).

Sporophyte Appearance:
The sporophyte is composed of a setae and a capsule. The setae, or stalk, which supports the capsule arises from the gametophyte. It may be smooth or papillose. The capsules are smooth and oblong(906, Anderson).

Fun facts about Thuidium:
It is used by horticulturists for orchid cultivation and in the Himalayan Highlands for chinking in buildings(73, Glime)!

Literature Cited

Anderson and Crum, Howard. Mosses of Eastern North America Vol. II. Columbia University Press, 1981. New York. pp.906.

Crum, Howard. Mosses of the Great Lakes Forest third ed. University of Michigan, 1983. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Glime, Janice. The Elfin World of Mosses and Liverworts. Isle Royale Natural History Association, 1993. Houghton.

By Shana Byrd
May 2001