Clustered Feather-moss

It was the cluster of capsules which made me notice this moss, growing thickly on a tree stump in Craighall Den.  Then I found it on a boulder up above Kettle.

The abundant capsules seem to start off green and thin, then become multi-coloured, and finally end up brown and glossy.  The lids are beaked, so that the capsules reminded me of a flock of geese, looking about in all directions.  The book says that the seta is short (6 – 10 mm) but it was more like 15 – 20 mm (red).

I found some (Nov 2019) where the capsules were still encased in a white calyptra, which caught my eye at a distance.

The leaves of the moss are quite sharply pointed and slightly concave.  With a hand lens and good light, you can see that they are minutely toothed, with a single nerve.

It seems to form quite large mats, growing both horizontally and vertically.

Pictures from Craighall Den and the Owlet Wood path, Cupar.