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Pointed Spear-moss - Calliergonella cuspidata
One of our commonest and most recognizable mosses. It is medium sized and grows mixed with other bryophytes, or it forms green, yellow-green or occasionally orange-brown patches. Shoots are commonly 3 to 8 cm long, but sometimes more, and are often red towards the base. The main stem is usually erect and has side branches that are more or less pinnately arranged, the whole shoot having a flattened appearance. The most distinctive field character is the shape of the shoot and branch tips: the leaves are closely rolled-up to form a smooth needle-like or spear-like point. Stem leaves are usually 2 to 2.5 mm long, narrowly egg-shaped, never curved, bluntly rounded at the tip, and with a short, double nerve. They have a strongly differentiated, colourless patch of cells in the basal corners. Branch leaves are smaller, but otherwise similar to the stem leaves.
C. cuspidata is common in moist, base-rich habitats, such as marshes, mires and flushes, in grassland, and among rocks. On some soils, for example clay, it frequently occurs in lawns. It also occurs in relatively dry places in calcareous habitats, such as chalk and limestone grassland.
All year round.
Widespread and frequent throughout Britain
Common in Leicestershire and Rutland.
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Species profile
- Common names
- Pointed Spear-moss
- Species group:
- Mosses & Liverworts
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Hypnales
- Family:
- Pylaisiaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 63
- First record:
- 10/11/1991 (Dennis Ballard)
- Last record:
- 07/08/2023 (Hamzaoui, Uta)
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