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Bryum pseudotriquetrum
The slender, erect plants with reddish stems and contrasting greenish decurrencies are key characters. The leaf cells are short (3-4:1) and the upper leaf margins entire and bordered by long cells – these two features differentiate it from Pohlia nutans, a species of similar size, but having longer leaf cells (5-6:1) and serrulate upper leaf margins. The Pohlia occurs in bogs and poor fens within Sphagnum-dominated habitats whereas the Bryum occurs in rich fens in true moss-dominated habitats.
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Above, plant in the field |
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| Habit | Small, erect, reddish plants with dark, naked, unbranched stems |
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| Stems | |
| Leaves | Lanceolate, occassionally broadly so, acute to shortly acuminate, entire; costa single, strong, ending at or just below leaf apex, occassionally shortly excurrent, distinctly decurrent |
| Leaf Cells | shortly hexagonal, longer at margin and there forming a border of long cells, longer below, smooth |
| Alar Cells | not differentiated |
| Habitat | Intermixed in other mosses in rich fens, occuring not uncommonly in wooded fens and swamps as well as in open rich fens. Although this species is extremely common and variable in a number of non-peatland habitats (and hard to differentiate from numerous other Bryum species), the form that occurs in rich fens is easily recognized byt eh decurrent leaf bases. |
| Common Associates | A large number of typical rich fen species are often co-mingled with this species. Some examples are Hamatocaulis vernicosus, Meesia triquetria, Scorpidium cossonii, and Plagiomnium ellipticum. |
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