Ceratodon purpureus

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Ceratodon purpureus
Ceratodon purpureus.jpeg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Bryophyta
Class: Bryopsida
Subclass: Dicranidae
Order: Dicranales
Family: Ditrichaceae
Genus: Ceratodon
Species:
C. purpureus
Binomial name
Ceratodon purpureus
Synonyms

Ceratodon dimorphus
Mielichhoferia recurvifolia.

Ceratodon purpureus is a dioicous moss with a color ranging from yellow-green to red. [1] The height amounts to 3 centimeters. It is found worldwide, mainly in urban areas and next to roads on dry sand soils. [2] It can grow in a very wide variety of habitats, from polluted highway shoulders and mine tailings to areas recently denuded by wildfire to the bright slopes of Antarctica. [3] Its common names include redshank, [4] purple forkmoss, [4] ceratodon moss, fire moss, and purple horn toothed moss.

Contents

Description

Fire moss is a short moss that forms dense tufts or sometimes cushions. [5] [6] The stems are erect, usually about 0.5 inch (1.3 cm) long. The upper 0.19 inch (0.5 cm) is current year's growth; [5] often slightly branched by forking at the tip of the old growth. [7] The stems sometimes become 2.4 to 3.1 inches (7–8 cm) long in shaded places. [8] Leaves are short and hairlike, spreading when moist; somewhat folded or twisted when dry. [5] [7]

Fire moss contains photoprotective pigments, which are a useful adaptation for the bright Antarctic environment. [9] Leaf pigment varies from green to ginger. [9]

Distribution and habitat

Fire moss likely occurs in every country throughout the world but is possibly replaced by closely related taxa in tropical latitudes. [10] It is widespread throughout Canada, where it is known from every province and territory. [10] In the United States it occurs in every state. [10]

Fire moss is able to tolerate much higher pollution levels than other mosses. [11] It is common in urban and industrial environments subjected to a variety of pollutants, along highways, and on the tailings and refuse associated with both coal and heavy-metal mining activities. [11]

Fire moss is often found on disturbed sites. It occurs on a wide range of substrates including soil, rock, wood, humus, old roofs, sand, and cracks of sidewalks. [5] [7] [10] It is most abundant on exposed, compact, mineral, dry, gravelly or sandy soils but tolerates a wide range of soil textures. [5] Sand dunes close to water in Scotland are colonized by fire moss, which grows between the shoots of grasses. [11]

Life cycle

Fire moss is dioecious, [5] reproducing generatively with spores and vegetatively through protonemata. The capsules are held horizontally on the end of a long seta (fruit stalk). [5] Fire moss generally fruits abundantly. [7] Wind is the main method of spore dispersal.[ citation needed ]

Spore germination in fire moss is a two-phase process. Spores first swell then distend. [12] Usually the setae are present in great numbers in the colony; with changes in humidity they twist and untwist. This movement helps to jerk the capsules, helping in spore discharge. Possibly the contraction of the grooves in the capsule at maturity also helps to squeeze out the spores. [5] Spores of fire moss have remained viable even after drying for 16 years. [11]

Fire moss reproduces vegetatively via protonemata (threadlike or platelike growths). [13]

Fire moss sporophytes appear early in the spring, as soon as the snow melts. [6] In March, the setae reach their full height and begin to turn from green to red. Capsules mature by late spring. [7] By midsummer the capsules often decay, and the setae break from the moss. [8]

Microarthropod-mediated fertilization

A 2012 study found that male and female fire moss emit different and complex volatile organic scents. [14] Female plants emit more compounds than male plants. Springtails were found to choose female plants preferentially, and the study found that the springtails enhance moss fertilization. The results seem to suggest a plant-pollinator relationship analogous to those found in flowering plants. [14]

Ecology

Fire moss prefers low competition and high light; however, it is somewhat shade tolerant, [15] [16] and has, for example, been reported to grow in artificially illuminated caves. [17] [18] It is a colonizer of disturbed sites and readily invades mineral soil by spores.[ citation needed ] Fire moss is typically found associated with other species characteristic of disturbed sites such as fireweed ( Epilobium angustifolium ) and pearly everlasting ( Anaphalis margaritacea ). [19] Fire moss is often replaced by flowering plants in later stages of succession. [11] In the black spruce ( Picea mariana )-lichen woodlands of Alaska and Canada, the first stage of revegetation, which lasts from 1 to 20 years, is dominated by pioneer mosses such as fire moss. Fire moss continues to increase in the early part of the shrub stage but begins to decrease toward the end of this stage. [20]

Fire moss will colonize burned areas through lightweight, off-site, wind-dispersed spores. [13] [21] High-severity fire, which exposes mineral soil, provides ideal conditions for the germination of fire moss spores. Fire moss is often the dominant vegetation for several years following high-severity fire. [11] It produces few spores late in the first postfire year and many in the second. [21] If fire takes place in early spring; gametophores can develop in 4 to 5 months. If the fire takes place in the fall, colonization is slower. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moss</span> Division of non-vascular land plants

Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophytasensu stricto. Bryophyta may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hornworts. Mosses typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients. Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are typically 0.2–10 cm (0.1–3.9 in) tall, though some species are much larger. Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 50 cm (20 in) in height. There are approximately 12,000 species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryophyte</span> Terrestrial plants that lack vascular tissue

Bryophytes are a group of land plants, sometimes treated as a taxonomic division, that contains three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. In the strict sense, Bryophyta consists of the mosses only. Bryophytes are characteristically limited in size and prefer moist habitats although they can survive in drier environments. The bryophytes consist of about 20,000 plant species. Bryophytes produce enclosed reproductive structures, but they do not produce flowers or seeds. They reproduce sexually by spores and asexually by fragmentation or the production of gemmae. Though bryophytes were considered a paraphyletic group in recent years, almost all of the most recent phylogenetic evidence supports the monophyly of this group, as originally classified by Wilhelm Schimper in 1879. The term bryophyte comes from Ancient Greek βρύον (brúon) 'tree moss, liverwort', and φυτόν (phutón) 'plant'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marchantiophyta</span> Botanical division of non-vascular land plants

The Marchantiophyta are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hornwort</span> Division of non-vascular land plants with horn-shaped sporophytes

Hornworts are a group of non-vascular Embryophytes constituting the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte. As in mosses and liverworts, hornworts have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information; the flattened, green plant body of a hornwort is the gametophyte stage of the plant.

<i>Fissidens adianthoides</i> Species of moss

Fissidens adianthoides, the maidenhair pocketmoss, is a moss in the family Fissidentaceae. It was first collected by Hedwig in 1801.

<i>Helodium blandowii</i> Species of moss

Helodium blandowii, also known as Blandow's helodium moss, Blandow's tamarisk-moss, Blandow's bogmoss, and Blandow's feathermoss, is a rare plant in the Western U.S., including Oregon and California. It occurs all around the northern hemisphere in higher latitudes, and in some places is not as rare as in the Western U.S.

<i>Meesia triquetra</i> Species of moss

Meesia triquetra, the three-ranked hump-moss, is a moss that occurs all around the northern hemisphere in higher latitudes.

<i>Meesia uliginosa</i> Species of moss

Meesia uliginosa, the broad-nerved hump-moss, is a rare moss of the Western U.S. It occurs all around the northern hemisphere in higher latitudes, and in some places is not as rare as in the Western U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetraphidaceae</span> Family of mosses

Tetraphidaceae is a family of mosses. It includes only the two genera Tetraphis and Tetrodontium, each with two species. The defining feature of the family is the 4-toothed peristome.

<i>Aulacomnium palustre</i> Species of moss

Aulacomnium palustre, the bog groove-moss or ribbed bog moss, is a moss that is nearly cosmopolitan in distribution. It occurs in North America, Hispaniola, Venezuela, Eurasia, and New Zealand. In North America, it occurs across southern arctic, subboreal, and boreal regions from Alaska and British Columbia to Greenland and Quebec. Documentation of ribbed bog moss's distribution in the contiguous United States is probably incomplete. It is reported sporadically south to Washington, Wyoming, Georgia, and Virginia.

<i>Marchantia polymorpha</i> Species of liverwort

Marchantia polymorpha is a species of large thalloid liverwort in the class Marchantiopsida. M. polymorpha is highly variable in appearance and contains several subspecies. This species is dioicous, having separate male and female plants. M. polymorpha has a wide distribution and is found worldwide. Common names include common liverwort or umbrella liverwort.

<i>Campylopus introflexus</i> Species of moss

Campylopus introflexus, also known as the heath star moss, is a species of moss. The first description of the species was made by Johannes Hedwig as Dicranum introflexum in 1801.

<i>Pellia epiphylla</i> Species of liverworts in the family Pelliaceae

Pellia epiphylla is a species of thallose liverwort. It occurs in North America, Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. It grows in patches in damp, sheltered places on neutral or acidic substrates. It is common on the banks of rivers, streams and ditches and also grows in wet woodland, marshes and on wet rocks.

<i>Polytrichum juniperinum</i> Species of moss

Polytrichum juniperinum, commonly known as juniper haircap or juniper polytrichum moss, is an evergreen and perennial species of moss that is widely distributed, growing on every continent including Antarctica.

<i>Salix alaxensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Salix alaxensis is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names Alaska willow and feltleaf willow. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs throughout Alaska and northwestern Canada.

<i>Tetraphis pellucida</i> Species of moss

Tetraphis pellucida, the pellucid four-tooth moss, is one of two species of moss in the acrocarpous genus Tetraphis. Its name refers to its four large peristome teeth found on the sporophyte capsule.

<i>Hypnodendron comosum</i> Species of moss

Hypnodendron comosum, commonly known as palm moss or palm tree moss, is a ground moss which can be divided into two varieties: Hypnodendron comosum var. comosum and Hypnodendron comosum var. sieberi. Both Hypnodendron varieties most commonly grow in damp locations in the temperate and tropical rainforests of New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania in southern Australia and in New Zealand.

Ditrichum cornubicum, commonly known as the Cornish path-moss, is a moss endemic to Cornwall, United Kingdom. First discovered in 1963, on a roadside west of Lanner, Cornwall by Jean Paton, it has since been found in two other places within Cornwall. It was published as new to science in 1976.

<i>Grimmia pulvinata</i> Species of moss

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<i>Polytrichum strictum</i> Species of moss

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References

This article incorporates text from the following source, which (as a U.S. government work) is in the public domain: Tesky, Julie L. 1992. "Ceratodon purpureus". Fire Effects Information System. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.

  1. ↑ Flora of North America
  2. ↑ Species Profile Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ US Forest Service Fire Ecology
  4. 1 2 Edwards, Sean R. (2012). English Names for British Bryophytes. British Bryological Society Special Volume. Vol. 5 (4 ed.). Wootton, Northampton: British Bryological Society. ISBN   978-0-9561310-2-7. ISSN   0268-8034.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Shaw, J.; Jules, E. S.; Beer, S. C. 1991. Effects of metals on growth, morphology, and reproduction of Ceratodon purpureus. Bryologist. 94(3): 270-277.
  6. 1 2 Bland, John H. 1971. Forests of Lilliput. The realm of mosses and lichens. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Dunham, Elizabeth Marie. 1951. How to know the mosses: a popular guide to the mosses of the United States. Boston, MA: The Mosher Press.
  8. 1 2 Grout, A. J. 1932. Moss flora of North America, north of Mexico. Vol. 3. Part 3. New York: The author.
  9. 1 2 Post, A. 1990. Photoprotective pigment as an adaptive strategy in the Antarctic moss Ceratodon purpureus. Polar Biology. 10(4): 241-246.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Ireland, R. R. 1982. Moss flora of the Maritime Provinces. Publications in Botany No. 13. [Ottawa, ON]: National Museum of Natural Sciences.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Richardson, D. H. 1981. The biology of mosses. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
  12. ↑ Olesen, Peter; Mogensen, Gert Steen. 1978. Ultrastructure, histochemistry and notes on germination stages of spores in selected mosses. The Bryologist. 81(4): 493-516.
  13. 1 2 Auclair, A. N. D. 1983. The role of fire in lichen-dominated tundra and forest-tundra. In: Wein, Ross W.; MacLean, David A., eds. The role of fire in northern circumpolar ecosystems. Scope 18. New York: John Wiley & Sons: 235-256.
  14. 1 2 Rosenstiel, T. N.; Shortlidge, E. E.; Melnychenko, A. N.; Pankow, J. F.; Eppley, S. M. (2012). "Sex-specific volatile compounds influence microarthropod-mediated fertilization of moss". Nature. 489 (7416): 431–433. doi:10.1038/nature11330. PMID   22810584.
  15. ↑ Hall, Christine N.; Kuss, Fred R. 1989. Vegetation alteration along trails in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Biological Conservation. 48: 211-227.
  16. ↑ Klinka, K.; Krajina, V. J.; Ceska, A.; Scagel, A. M. 1989. Indicator plants of coastal British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press.
  17. ↑ Thatcher, Edward P. (1947). "Observations on Bryophytes Living in an Artificially Illuminated Limestone Cave". The American Midland Naturalist. 37 (3): 797–800. doi:10.2307/2421476.
  18. ↑ Thatcher, Edward P. (1949). "Bryophytes of an Artificially Illuminated Cave". The Bryologist. 52 (4): 212–214. doi:10.2307/3239480.
  19. ↑ Cormack, R. G. H. 1953. A survey of coniferous forest succession in the eastern Rockies. Forestry Chronicle. 29: 218-232.
  20. ↑ Viereck, L. A.; Dyrness, C. T. 1979. Ecological effects of the Wickersham Dome Fire near Fairbanks, Alaska. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-90. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station.
  21. 1 2 Crane, M. F.; Habeck, James R.; Fischer, William C. 1983. Early postfire revegetation in a western Montana Douglas-fir forest. Res. Pap. INT-319. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station.
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