#3726 - Cyathophorum bulbosum - Quill Moss
Another delightful moss from the wet, shady sides of the Nicols Creek gorge, in the same family as the Umbrella Moss previously.
AKA false fern moss, but has some anatomical features that make it easy to mistake for a leafy liverwort as well. First described by German botanist Johann Hedwig in 1801. The name means 'bulbous cup-bearer', and refers to the sheath around the base of the spore capsules.
It grows in moist shaded areas, usually close to water, on soil, rocks, the bases of trees, rotting logs and the trunks of tree ferns. Common in temperate rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest in the eastern states of Australia, as well as Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, the Auckland and Chatham Islands, Lord Howe Island and possibly Norfolk Island and New Ireland.
Nicols Creek, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.
