Schistostega

Luminous moss ( Schistostega Pennata )

The luminous moss ( Schistostega Pennata ) is a 0.5 to 1 cm akrokarpes ( gipfelfrüchtiges ) moss. It is found alone in a family within the order Schistostegaceae Dicranales.

It has its name growing in shady locations moss, because it can reflect light (see below).

Description

The plants have a perennial Protonema containing lens-shaped or round cells whose vacuoles incident light similar to a converging lens focused on the chloroplasts. This is probably an adaptation to very dark locations represents a part of the light is, however, reflected by the curved rear wall of the cell and, similar to a cat's eye, reflected. This seem to be the Moose under certain lighting conditions gold to light green. It involves a purely physical effect.

The gametophyte itself is formed differently in sterile and fertile plants. The plants are great under a centimeter. Always but the lower part of the trunk is naked axes. In the sterile plants are leafy flattened, that is, the leaves are placed in two rows, and the leaf area are all on one level. The leaves easily flow together at the leaf base. The lanceolate leaves are rippenlos, and the cells of the leaf blade are rhombic. The plant is overrun bluish green due to a wax pad.

The fertile plants, however, are at least five lines on the leafy Stämmchenspitze. The leaves are usually slightly narrower than the sterile plants.

The capsules are on a 4cm long seta and are ovate. A peristome is missing.

Dissemination

The plants grow in horizontal above all, very shaded columns in lime-free rock, especially on shale. Rare finds the way on Erdböschungen.

The species is found in the temperate latitudes in the western North and Central Europe and North America. In Central Europe it is very absent-minded, and can only be found in places frequently. There is a widespread species in the Cretaceous sandstone cliffs, in layer joints and cavities of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and the Zittau Mountains.

Swell

• Urania plant kingdom. Volume 2: mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, 1st edition 1992, Urania -Verlag, Leipzig 1992, ISBN 3-332-00495-6
• Jan- Peter Frahm: biology of mosses. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg and Berlin, 2001, ISBN 3-8274-0164- X.
• Jan- Peter Frahm, Wolfgang Frey: moss flora. 3, revised. Edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8252-1250-5.
• Wolfgang Frey, Jan- Peter Frahm, Eberhard Fischer, Wolfram Lobin: Small cryptogamic flora Volume IV: The Moss and Ferns of Europe. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, Jena, New York 1995, ISBN 3-437-30756-8