角齒苔

More info for the terms: forest, high-severity fire, lichens, prescribed fire

Following a 1976 high-severity summer fire on heathlands of Brittany, France, fire moss was the most prevalent species in the majority of sites until fall of 1979 when heavy rain and frost caused high mortality [4].  Fire moss populations culminated about 15 years after a high-severity fire in northern Sweden.  After 24 years, populations had declined considerably [31].  At one site in Michigan, fire moss was first observed in 1930, 4 years after a high-severity fire.  By 1940, this moss covered 50 percent of the ground, and by 1950 it had colonized 95 percent.  Other mosses and Cladonia lichens appeared in 1942 and by 1971 had almost replaced fire moss [26].  On a severely burned heathland in Brittany, France, a moss layer dominated by fire moss developed to a maximum in the first year then decreased rapidly and disappeared by the third year.  Forty-three percent of the original fire moss patches were replaced by patches of the moss Polytrichum piliferum [12]. For information on prescribed fire and postfire responses of many plant species, including fire moss, see Hamilton's Research Papers (Hamilton 2006a, Hamilton 2006b) and these Research Project Summaries:

• The effects of experimental fires in an Alaskan black spruce/feather moss community
• Forest floor and plant responses to experimental fires in an Alaskan black spruce/feather moss community

fire moss
purple horn-toothed moss

Fire moss is a native, short moss that forms dense tufts or sometimes cushions [3,28].  The stems are erect, usually about 0.5 inch (1.3 cm) long.  The upper 0.19 inch (0.5 cm) is current year's growth [28]; often slightly branched by forking at the tip of the old growth [8].  The stems sometimes become 2.4 to 3.1 inches (7-8 cm) long in shaded places [14].  Leaves are short and hairlike, spreading when moist; somewhat folded or twisted when dry [8,28].

Fire moss is widespread throughout Canada, where it is known from every province and territory.  In the United States it occurs in every state. It likely occurs in every country throughout the world but is possibly replaced by closely related taxa in tropical latitudes [16].

More info for the term: fire regime

Fire moss's light wind-carried spores readily colonize burned areas [23]. FIRE REGIMES: Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

Fire moss is often found on disturbed sites.  It occurs on a wide range of substrates including soil, rock, wood, humus, old roofs, sand, and cracks of sidewalks [8,16,28].  It is most abundant on exposed, compact, mineral, dry, gravelly or sandy soils but tolerates a wide range of soil textures [28].  Sand dunes close to water in Scotland are colonized by fire moss, which grows between the shoots of grasses [26].  Fire moss is typically found associated with other species characteristic of disturbed sites such as fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) and pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) [6].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

More info for the terms: hardwood, swamp

     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    13  Black spruce - tamarack
    14  Northern pin oak
    15  Red pine
    16  Aspen
    18  Paper birch
    19  Gray birch - red maple
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    24  Hemlock - yellow birch
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    26  Sugar maple - basswood
    27  Sugar maple
    28  Black cherry - maple
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    34  Red spruce - Fraser fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white-cedar
    38  Tamarack
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    40  Post oak - blackjack oak
    42  Bur oak
    43  Bear oak
    44  Chestnut oak
    45  Pitch pine
    46  Eastern redcedar
    50  Black locust
    51  White pine - chestnut oak
    52  White oak - black oak - northern red oak
    53  White oak
    55  Northern red oak
    57  Yellow-poplar
    58  Yellow-poplar - eastern hemlock
    59  Yellow-poplar - white oak - northern red oak
    60  Beech - sugar maple
    61  River birch - sycamore
    62  Silver maple - American elm
    63  Cottonwood
    64  Sassafras - persimmon
    65  Pin oak - sweetgum
    67  Mohrs ("shin") oak
    68  Mesquite
    69  Sand pine
    70  Longleaf pine
    71  Longleaf pine - scrub oak
    72  Southern scrub oak
    73  Southern redcedar
    75  Shortleaf pine
    76  Shortleaf pine - oak
    78  Virginia pine - oak
    79  Virginia pine
    80  Loblolly pine - shortleaf pine
    81  Loblolly pine
    83  Longleaf pine - slash pine
    84  Slash pine
    85  Slash pine - hardwood
    88  Willow oak - water oak - diamondleaf oak
    89  Live oak
    91  Swamp chestnut oak - cherrybark oak
    92  Sweetgum - willow oak
    93  Sugarberry - American elm - green ash
    94  Sycamore - sweetgum - American elm
    95  Black willow
    96  Overcup oak - water hickory
    98  Pond pine
   101  Baldcypress
   107  White spruce
   108  Red maple
   109  Hawthorn
   110  Black oak
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   203  Balsam poplar
   204  Black spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   207  Red fir
   208  Whitebark pine
   209  Bristlecone pine
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   216  Blue spruce
   217  Aspen
   218  Lodgepole pine
   219  Limber pine
   220  Rocky Mountain juniper
   221  Red alder
   222  Black cottonwood - willow
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

More info for the term: shrub

   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES12  Longleaf - slash pine
   FRES13  Loblolly - shortleaf pine
   FRES14  Oak - pine
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES27  Redwood
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES29  Sagebrush
   FRES30  Desert shrub
   FRES31  Shinnery
   FRES32  Texas savanna
   FRES33  Southwestern shrubsteppe
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper
   FRES36  Mountain grasslands
   FRES37  Mountain meadows
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES39  Prairie
   FRES40  Desert grasslands
   FRES41  Wet grasslands
   FRES42  Annual grasslands
   FRES44  Alpine

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the terms: bog, cactus, forest, shrub, woodland

   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K005  Mixed conifer forest
   K006  Redwood forest
   K007  Red fir forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest
   K009  Pine - cypress forest
   K010  Ponderosa shrub forest
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K016  Eastern ponderosa forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K022  Great Basin pine forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K024  Juniper steppe woodland
   K025  Alder - ash forest
   K026  Oregon oakwoods
   K027  Mesquite bosque
   K028  Mosaic of K002 and K026
   K029  California mixed evergreen forest
   K030  California oakwoods
   K031  Oak - juniper woodlands
   K032  Transition between K031 and K037
   K033  Chaparral
   K034  Montane chaparral
   K036  Mosaic of K030 and K035
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K039  Blackbrush
   K040  Saltbush - greasewood
   K041  Creosotebush
   K042  Creosotebush - bursage
   K043  Paloverde - cactus shrub
   K044  Creosotebush - tarbush
   K045  Ceniza shrub
   K046  Desert: vegetation largely lacking
   K047  Fescue - oatgrass
   K048  California steppe
   K049  Tule marshes
   K050  Fescue - wheatgrass
   K051  Wheatgrass - bluegrass
   K052  Alpine meadows and barren
   K053  Grama - galleta steppe
   K054  Grama - tobosa prairie
   K055  Sagebrush steppe
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K057  Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
   K058  Grama - tobosa shrubsteppe
   K059  Trans-Pecos shrub savanna
   K060  Mesquite savanna
   K061  Mesquite - acacia savanna
   K062  Mesquite - live oak savanna
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K068  Wheatgrass - grama - buffalograss
   K069  Bluestem - grama prairie
   K070  Sandsage - bluestem prairie
   K071  Shinnery
   K072  Sea oats prairie
   K073  Northern cordgrass prairie
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K075  Nebraska Sandhills prairie
   K076  Blackland prairie
   K077  Bluestem - sacahuista prairie
   K078  Southern cordgrass prairie
   K079  Palmetto prairie
   K080  Marl - everglades
   K081  Oak savanna
   K082  Mosaic of K074 and K100
   K083  Cedar glades
   K084  Cross Timbers
   K085  Mesquite - buffalograss
   K086  Juniper - oak savanna
   K087  Mesquite - oak savanna
   K088  Fayette prairie
   K089  Black Belt
   K090  Live oak - sea oats
   K091  Cypress savanna
   K092  Everglades
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K094  Conifer bog
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K097  Southeastern spruce - fir forest
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K099  Maple - basswood forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K101  Elm - ash forest
   K102  Beech - maple forest
   K103  Mixed mesophytic forest
   K104  Appalachian oak forest
   K105  Mangrove
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest
   K109  Transition between K104 and K106
   K110  Northeastern oak - pine forest
   K111  Oak - hickory - pine forest
   K112  Southern mixed forest
   K113  Southern floodplain forest
   K114  Pocosin
   K115  Sand pine scrub
   K116  Subtropical pine forest

Fire moss is typically killed by fire [7].

More info for the term: bryophyte

Bryophyte

Fire moss is able to tolerate much higher pollution levels than other
mosses [26].  It is common in urban and industrial environments
subjected to a variety of pollutants, along highways, and on the
tailings and refuse associated with both coal and heavy-metal mining
activities.  Fire moss is common in the vicinity of a zinc smelter in
Palmerton, Pennsylvania.  However, populations growing on mine tailings
or in other habitats contaminated by heavy metals often lack sporophytes
in spite of vigorous gametophytic growth [30].

Fire moss contains photoprotective pigments, which are a useful
adaptation for the bright Antarctic environment.  Leaf pigment varies
from green to ginger [24].

The abundance of fire moss after disturbance promotes a large
accumulation of organic matter, which favors the development of
invertebrate fauna [4].

Fire moss is eaten by some grasshopper species in the genus Tetrix [26].

     AL  AK  AZ  AR  CA  CO  CT  DE  FL  GA
     HI  ID  IL  IN  IA  KS  KY  LA  ME  MD
     MA  MI  MN  MS  MO  MT  NE  NV  NH  NJ
     NM  NY  NC  ND  OH  OK  OR  PA  RI  SC
     SD  TN  TX  UT  VT  VA  WA  WI  WY  AB
     BC  MB  NB  NF  NT  NS  ON  PE  PQ  SK
     YT  MEXICO

More info on this topic.

Fire moss sporophytes appear early in the spring, as soon as the snow melts [3].  In March, the setae reach their full height and begin to turn from green to red.  Capsules mature by late spring [8].  By midsummer the capsules often decay, and the setae break from the moss [14].

More info for the term: high-severity fire

Fire moss will colonize burned areas through lightweight, off-site, wind-dispersed spores [2,7].  High-severity fire, which exposes mineral soil, provides ideal conditions for the germination of fire moss spores. Fire moss is often the dominant vegetation for several years following high-severity fire [26].  It produces few spores late in the first postfire year and many in the second [7].  If fire takes place in early spring; gametophores can develop in 4 to 5 months.  If the fire takes place in the fall, colonization is slower [26].

More info for the terms: capsule, dioecious

Fire moss is dioecious [30].  The capsules are held horizontally on the end of a long seta (fruit stalk) [28].  Fire moss generally fruits abundantly [8].  Wind is the main method of spore dispersal [23]. Spore germination in fire moss is a two-phase process.  Spores first swell then distend [22].  Usually the setae are present in great numbers in the colony; with changes in humidity they twist and untwist.  This movement helps to jerk the capsules, helping in spore discharge. Possibly the contraction of the grooves in the capsule at maturity also helps to squeeze out the spores [28].  Spores of fire moss have remained viable even after drying for 16 years [26]. Vegetative reproduction:  Fire moss reproduces vegetatively via protonemata (threadlike or platelike growths) [2].

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

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More info for the terms: competition, shrub, succession

Obligate Initial Community Species Fire moss prefers low competition and high light; however, it is somewhat shade tolerant [15,18].  It is a colonizer of disturbed sites and readily invades mineral soil by spores [23].  Fire moss is often replaced by flowering plants in later stages of succession [26].  In the black spruce (Picea mariana)-lichen woodlands of Alaska and Canada, the first stage of revegetation, which lasts from 1 to 20 years, is dominated by pioneer mosses such as fire moss.  Fire moss continues to increase in the early part of the shrub stage but begins to decrease toward the end of this stage [32].

Ceratodon dimorphus
Mielichhoferia recurvifolia

The currently accepted scientific name for fire moss is Ceratodon
purpureus (Hedw.) Brid. [16]. According to Zander [33], 3 subspecies
and 36 varieties have been described worldwide, but names were not
mentioned in this source.

More info for the term: codominant

The rapid colonization of fire moss after disturbance can help prevent soil erosion [29].  In revegetation trials on disturbed riverbank sites in Quebec, Canada, fire moss was codominant with Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa) [21].