''Schistidium antarctici'' is a species 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 ...
found in
Antarctica and
subantarctic islands.
It lives in compact clumps that are yellowish green at the top and brownish black at the bottom. It grows on both soil and rocks.
In the
Windmill Islands
The Windmill Islands are an Antarctic group of rocky islands and rocks about wide, paralleling the coast of Wilkes Land for immediately north of Vanderford Glacier along the east side of Vincennes Bay. Kirkby Shoal is a small shoal area with de ...
area of
Wilkes Land, ''Schistidium antarctici'' is the most common
bryophyte. If its habitat supplies ample moisture, it may form a "carpet-like" growth, but if its habitat is dry, it forms a short "cushion-like" growth.
It fruits abundantly on
Signy Island and elsewhere in Northern maritime Antarctica.
[Investment in Sexual Reproduction by Antarctic Mosses]
P. Convey and R. I. Lewis Smith Oikos, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Nov., 1993), pp. 293-302]
Each capsule of the moss produces between 250,000 and 520,000 spores, each 9.3 μm in diameter and with a volume of 143 μm
3.
References
Grimmiales
Flora of the Antarctic
{{bryophyte-stub