Species: Ditrichum ambiguum
Ambiguous Ditrichum Moss
Species
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Bryophyta
Class
Bryopsida
Order
Dicranales
Family
Ditrichaceae
Genus
Ditrichum
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
ambiguous ditrichum moss
Informal Taxonomy
Plants, Non-Vascular - Mosses
Formal Taxonomy
Plantae - Bryophyta - Bryopsida - Dicranales - Ditrichaceae - Ditrichum
Ecology and Life History
Short General Description
Mosses rather small, 3-12 mm high, dull-green, yellowish, or brownish, gregarious or loosely tufted. Leaves 2-3 mm long, erect-flexuose or contorted when dry, loosely erect with spreading tips when moist, narrowly lanceolate, gradually long-acuminate, narrow but blunt at the tip, serrulate at the extreme apex and often sinuate-serrulate below because of irregularly thickened margins; costa percurrent. Dioicous; perichaetial leaves long-subulate from an oblong, sheathing base. Setae 8-12 mm long, orange-yellow, becoming brownish or reddish with age; capsules cylindric, erect and symmetric or slightly curved, smooth or slightly furrowed when old; operculum high-conic, blunt; peristome teeth equally split nearly to the basal membrane into 2 terete, filiform, brown, densely spiculose divisions, obliquely directed or slightly twisted (Crum and Anderson 1981).
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G4?
Global Status Last Reviewed
1999-12-15
Global Status Last Changed
1999-12-15
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=S3&CA.QC=SNR&CA.SK=SNR&US.CA=SNR&US.MT=SU&US.NH=SNR&US.NC=S1&US.OR=SNR&US.RI=SNR&US.VT=SNR&US.WA=SNR" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
New Hampshire, New York (Howard 1975). Vermont, North Carolina, from British Columbia (Ireland et al 1987) to California and also occurring in the Himalayan Mountains of northern India (Crum and Anderson 1981). Reported from Quebec (Favreau & Brassard 1988), Saskatchewan (Ireland et al 1987), and Montana.

