''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 appropriat ...

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 ...

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 ...

, 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. 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 archipelag ...

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 th ...

, 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 In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of exactly 90 degrees or radians corresponding to a quarter turn. If a ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles. Th ...

, 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, for ...

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 ...

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 ...

. 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 coun ...

, where it is now an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

. 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". ...

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 ...

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

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 arti ...

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 conventions of everyday speech to the internationally ag ...

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 and docks. It is also used as an antiviral agent. It is currently marketed, by United Phosphorus Ltd - ...

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-famili ...

), implying a close relationship to the genus '' Rhytidium''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

''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