#dicranoloma

[drhoz]

#2293 - Dicranoloma sp.

‘Dicran’, for the similarity to the moss genus Dicranum. ‘-loma’ means border, referring to the elongate cells along the leaf margins, that distinguish it from the other genus. Mostly found in the Southern Hemisphere. The related Dicranum is mostly Northern Hemisphere.

Dicranoloma are very common mosses in wet forests in Australia, and forms mats on the forest floor in the beech/podocarp forests of New Zealand. In this case it was growing as an epiphyte, next to Cladomnion ericoides and other bryophytes.

Male plants are nearly always dwarfed and epiphytic on female or sterile plants.

Horopito, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand.