Menzies’ tree moss

Description:

Also known as Umbrella moss its shaped like a tiny palm tree. Plants are 3-8 cm tall, grow in in a grove of treelets – in tufts or mats, with erect stems reddish brown to black, branched on the top. Leaves are pale green (on young plants) to dark green, sometimes reddish brown, spreading on top of the stem. The colorful spore capsules are plentiful and bent over as opposed to being erect (which is the case for many other moss species). The spore capsules grow from the female shoot of the plant. The male shoot has the rosette of leaves (flower like) seen in pic 4.

Habitat:

Spotted at the base of a Big leaf maple tree. In a dense mature mostly conifer forest at the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. Menzies’s tree moss is North American endemic, common in coastal areas from sea level to subalpine elevations; it grows in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and California.