Marble Screw-moss
I found this moss in my garden, growing on an ornamental sycamore tree. It has a little white hair point, and I wondered about Syntrichia laevipila, but the points didn’t seem long enough. And then I noticed the way that the leaves are full of gemmae, and are incurved, and it all fell into place for Syntrichia papillosa.
Under the microscope, the gemmae are like green couscous.
I managed to get a picture of a couple of gemmae which had floated free of the leaf.
And a picture of a leaf, which has a top-heavy shape.
This next picture is a bit blurry but shows how the drying leaves curve inwards.
I might add a picture of the moss when it’s properly dry, for comparison, but here’s how it looked on a frosty morning in December.
But I still can’t work out why it would be called Marble Screw-moss…
Pictures taken December 2020, Cupar, Fife.
Learning about Mosses 