''Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus'' is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...
known as springy turf-moss in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
and square goose neck moss in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
It is widespread in
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
and
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, and has been introduced to the
Southern Hemisphere. It has broad ecological tolerances, and is usually found in man-made habitats such as lawns and golf courses. It is most closely related to ''
R. subpinnatus'', with which it is often confused.
Description
''Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus'' grows as an extensive mat of branching stems, up to tall,
sheathed in leaves that are long and bend sharply back at a
right angle, and thus spread outwards from the stem.
The leaf bases are broad and include a pair of short nerves.
The plant rarely produces capsules, so most of the species' reproduction is
asexual.
Distribution
''Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus'' has a circumpolar distribution in the
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
,
being found across much of Eurasia, and parts of North America, including
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
,
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
,
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
and
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
.
It has also been introduced to northeastern North America,
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, where it is now an
invasive species. The first specimen to be collected in the
Southern Hemisphere was taken in 1974 in Dundas Creek, western
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, but the first published record came the following year, from a
golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
in
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
on
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
's
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
.
Ecology
![Rhytidiadelphus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Rhytidiadelphus.squarrosus.jpg)
It tolerates a wide variety of soil conditions, from
calcareous grassland
Calcareous grassland (or alkaline grassland) is an ecosystem associated with thin basic soil, such as that on chalk and limestone downland. Plants on calcareous grassland are typically short and hardy, and include grasses and herbs such as clover. ...
to
acid heaths. It grows most conspicuously in heavily grazed
pasture
Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...
s and on the regularly mown fairways on golf courses,
and is the most common moss found in
lawn
A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. ...
s in the United Kingdom. It is almost always found in association with humans, leaving its original habitat unclear; it may have evolved as a plant of coastal
meadow
A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...
s.
Taxonomy
''Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus'' was formally named (as ''Hypnum squarrosum'') by
Johann Hedwig
Johann Hedwig (8 December 1730 – 18 February 1799), also styled as Johannes Hedwig, was a German botanist notable for his studies of mosses. He is sometimes called the "father of bryology". He is known for his particular observations of sexual r ...
in his 1801 work ''
Species Muscorum'',
which is considered the starting point for the
nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal naming conventions, conventions of everyday speech to the i ...
of most mosses.
Although ''R. squarrosus'' and ''R. subpinnatus'' have sometimes been considered varieties of a single species, particularly by botanists from the United States,
studies using
microsatellites
A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...
show them to be separate.
The two are often confused, however, and reports of ''R. squarrosus'' may sometimes refer to ''R. subpinnatus''.
Indeed, both ''R. subpinnatus'' and ''
R. japonicus'' were originally described as
infraspecific taxa
In botany, an infraspecific name is the scientific name for any taxon below the rank of species, i.e. an infraspecific taxon or infraspecies. (A "taxon", plural "taxa", is a group of organisms to be given a particular name.) The scientific names ...
within ''R. squarrosus''.
In contrast to ''R. triquetrus'' and ''
R. loreus'', ''R. squarrosus'', ''R. subpinnatus'' and ''R. japonicus'' have leaves which are not pleated. ''R. squarrosus'' differs from ''R. japonicus'' in having a long point at the leaf tips, and from ''R. subpinnatus'' in the closer spacing of the leaves on the stem, such that the stem can only be seen through the bases of the leaves; in ''R. subpinnatus'', parts of the stem are visible directly.
A new genus, ''
Rhytidiastrum'', has been proposed for a group of species including ''R. squarrosus'' and ''R. subpinnatus'', but not ''
R. triquetrus''.
Response to herbicide application
In a study of the effect of the herbicide
Asulam
Asulam is a herbicide invented by May & Baker Ltd , internally called M&B9057, that is used in horticulture and agriculture to kill bracken
Bracken (''Pteridium'') is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pt ...
on moss growth, ''Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus'' was shown to have intermediate
sensitivity to Asulam exposure.
Etymology
The genus name ''Rhytidiadelphus'' derives from the words ''Rhytidium'' and (''adelfós'',
brother
A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...
), implying a close relationship to the genus ''
Rhytidium''.
The
specific epithet ''squarrosus'' refers to the leaves, which are
squarrose, having a right-angled bend which causes the tips to extend away from the stem.
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q149109
Hypnales
Plants described in 1801