Dicranum are commonly called the broom mosses due to the gametophyte looking as is it has been swept to one side. The genus is one of 5 genera in the Dicranaceae Family that are found throughout the Great Lakes Forest area (Crum 1983). Dicranum can be found throughout Ohio. It can be found at the base of trees, on rock outcrops, and on rotting or decaying logs.

Gametophyte and Sporophyte Structure

The plant itself is considered small to large, as far as mosses are considered, and is found in dense tufts. The stems can be simple to forked. Leaves are generally lancelolate (rarely ovate), gradually acuminate, keeled, or subtose, sometimes crispy when dry. This plant is dioicous with the male plant being similar in size to the female plant or dwarfed (Crum 1983).

The setae is elongate slender to erect with the capsule being long, exerted, cylindric. The capsule is more or less asymmetric. The operculum is long-rostrate with 16 peristome teeth inserted at or near the mouth (Crum 1983).

There are currently 7 species from the genus Dicranum found in Ohio (Snider and Andreas 1996):

Dicranum condensatum Hedw.
Dicranum flagellare Hedw.
Dicranum fulvum Hook
Dicranum montanum Hedw.
Dicranum spurium Hedw.
Dicranum scoparium Hedw.
Dicranum viride (Sull. & Lesqui in Sull.) Linab.

Literature Cited

Crum, Howard. 1983. Mosses of the Great Lakes Forest, 3rd Edition. pp. 176-182, Univerisity of Michigan, Michagan.

Crum, Howard and Anderson, Lewis E. 1981. Mosses of Eastern North America. Columbia University Press.

Snider and Andreas 1996. Distribution of Mosses in Ohio.