Platyhypnidium riparioides

Bank - bill cap moss ( Platyhypnidium riparioides )

The shore - bill cap moss ( Platyhypnidium riparioides, Syn: Rhynchostegium riparioides ), also called butcher's broom moss is a moss species from the family Brachytheciaceae.

Identifying

The strong, up to 15 cm long, interwoven with each other, shiny plants are dark green on the lower, older parts, but vivid green on the upper parts. The irregularly branched stems adhere to the substrate with rhizoids. The both wet and dry protruding leaves are ovate, narrow, slightly hollow and from 1.8 to 2.9 mm long. The leaf margin serrate and often handled something. The sheet rib reaches about 3/4 of the sheet. The linealischen, worm -shaped lamina cells are about 50 to 100 microns long and 5-9 microns wide. The leaf blades are shaped cells more or less rectangular. The thick base of the leaf cells (often indistinct ) spotted. The smooth, reddish Seta carries a curved, oval-shaped, nodding or erect little capsule that is constricted below the mouth dry. Sporogone are usually moderately frequently formed from August to April. Risk of confusion exist riparium with Amblystegium and Brachythecium rivulare.

Occurrence

The moss mainly located in oligotrophic to eutrophic waters, where it prefers calcareous water. It is relatively insensitive to eutrophication. It usually comes in fast flowing, oxygen-rich streams and rivers before on rock at shaded locations near the surface. In deeper water layers, it is often replaced by Fontinalis antipyretica.

It occurs throughout the entire northern hemisphere, as well as in South America and in Africa. In Central Europe it is often in the mountains, otherwise rare.