Notes on Interesting Wisconsin Mosses, II

Notes on Interesting Wisconsin Mosses, IIAuthor(s): L. S. CheneySource: The Bryologist, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Mar., 1929), pp. 25-28Published by: American Bryological and Lichenological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3238613 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 09:25

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Bryological and Lichenological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Bryologist.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 46.243.173.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:25:54 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=abls

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3238613?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


THE BRYOLOGIST

VOL. XXXII MARCH, 1929 No. 2

NOTES ON INTERESTING WISCONSIN MOSSES, II

L. S. CHENEY

The summer of 1927 found me again working in Grant County. This time my duties took me into the Mississippi bluffs in the north half of the county up to the Wisconsin river; east through the broken territory along the south side of the Wisconsin almost to the eastern boundary of the County; and over the interior of the Northwest quarter of the county. It should be kept in mind that the territory outlined above is, for the larger part, rolling or even very rough. If we start at the Wisconsin river at the north end of the county and proceed in a southerly direction, we have first, along the river, a strip of the Potsdam sandstone, covered by other formations in the order named below: Magnesian Limestone, St. Peter Sandstone, Trenton, and Galena limestones. All these formations have a decided dip to the southwest, so that in the south end of the county the two limestones last mentioned are the surface formations.

The Wisconsin river slope in Grant County is short and steep. The bluffs range from three hundred and fifty feet to six hundred feet high. The south slope is much longer and gentler. But in both cases the work of erosion has cut through the various rock formations in such a way as to furnish a succession of types of rock substrata for mosses, liverworts, and lichens. One may, therefore, be prepared to find a considerable variety of vegetation on a relatively small area.

Before we take up the consideration of our 1927 finds, I want to call your attention to a moss found the preceding year. Amblystegiella minutissima (Sulliv. & Lesq.) Nichols, was found at several points near Glen Haven. It was always found on relatively small pieces of limestone partially embedded in the earth, well up on the side of north-facing wooded slopes. This moss was distributed to members of the Sullivant Moss Society last winter, but it was not mentioned in the paper read at the Philadelphia meeting, because I had not found it in my collection until after the paper had been finished and sent to the Secretary.

Over in the northeastern corner of the county, the process of erosion has left a small area consisting of two small hills each of which is surmounted by a solid mass of St. Peter Sandstone. Below these cliffs the bases of the hills are covered with a thick growth of White Pine trees. One of these, the smaller, is

The January BRYOLOGIST was published March 30, 1929.



-26-

locally known as Castle Rock. Here, some thirty years ago, Dr. R. H. True, of the University of Pennsylvania, found Dicranum condensatum Hedw., a plant of rather uncommon occurrence here. In this locality I found three mosses that are worthy of notice. One of these is the Dicranum, to which reference has

just been made. Another appears to have all the ear marks of Cynodontium gracilescens Schimp., and it occurs in considerable abundance on the sandstone blocks among the pines at the base of Castle Rock. These plants were far

beyond their prime and it was impossible to find even fairly good capsules, hence final decision on the identity of the plant must be deferred until good authentic material is available for comparison. In this same vicinity on the

top of a block of sandstone in a heavily shaded location at the foot of a north

slope, I found Raphidostegium carolinianum (C. M.) J. & S.

Along the slopes of most of the narrow valleys where limestone is the surface

formation, detached masses of stone lie scattered over the surface. Many of these are tilted but little in their slow movement down the slope. Such are

usually covered with soil, reaching a depth of several inches and producing a

covering of vegetation. On such a block, where the black soil layer was from half an inch to two inches thick, I found my first Funaria americana Lindb. This location is at the top of a slope in an open situation, exposed to the direct

sunlight in the summer from about ten o'clock until nearly sundown. After

making this find, I scrutinized every similar rock mass, hoping to find more of the plant, but without success.

In the November (1927) BRYOLOGIST, I mentioned Seligeria pusilla Bruch & Schimp., with a little doubt, as occurring on a limestone outcrop in Grant

county. During the season of 1927, it was found at not less than a dozen stations and specimens in sufficient number secured to furnish Prof. Holzinger a full set for his distribution. It was found only on limestone, very moist or wet; occur-

ring on vertical or overhanging cliff faces or on the under side of overjutting strata. A limited amount of S. recurvata Bruch & Schimp., was found at one station only. This is near Glen Haven. The plant was found on a small piece of Magnesian Limestone embedded in the soil high up on the side of a steep, wooded, north slope. Both of the Seligerias should be found in other neighboring Wisconsin counties and along the Mississippi river in Iowa and Minnesota.

The rarest find for the season is Zygodon viridissimus R. Brown. It was

growing on the fallen trunk of a hard maple tree at what, while the tree was

standing, would have been about thirty feet from the ground. The tree ap- parently had not been down more than two years and the colony of moss, about two and a half by four inches, must have been on the tree while it was still

standing. The only station in North America given for this plant, in the litera- ture that I have, is the one in Canada given in the Barnes & Heald Keys. The habit of growth of this plant and its leaf characters are so striking that one can

hardly go amiss on its identity. Another minute moss that is doubtless very rare in Wisconsin was found near Glen Haven. It is Amblystegiella Sprucei Bruch & Schimp. It was found covering one end of a thin flake of limestone



-27-

that was embedded about a foot in wet, black, mucky soil, in a springy place on the side of a very steep slope with a north exposure.

Leucodon julaceus (Hedw.) Sulliv., typically southern in its distribution, was found near Cassville. Its usual habitat is on tree trunks, but in this case it was growing on the vertical face of a large, detached block of limestone, probably ten feet from the ground. L. sciuroides was found at three similar stations on limestone during the seasons of 1926 and I927. All these four stations are on rock surfaces fronting directly on the Mississippi river. It may be that moisture conditions supplied by the river furnish a determining factor in this unusual association.

For several years I have been watching for Fissidens obtusifolius Wils., but I did not succeed in finding it until the summer of 1926. Then I secured only a few plants mixed with another small moss from a little sandstone outcrop near Potosi. This find gave me a clue. I must find sandstone if I would find the moss, but not all such outcrops carried the moss, I soon found out. However, I finally found an outcrop with other conditions right, and then I found my moss, almost square yards of it, in a clean growth. Whenever I found a narrow deep cut through the sandstone formed by running water, in a situation protected from direct sunshine all of the latter part of the day, I would find the otherwise bare, smooth, moist walls covered with a clean growth of this moss. In many instances, not a fruiting plant could be found on the entire area. In other instances fruiting plants would be quite plentiful. My finds of this plant to date have been exclusively on sandstone.

Late in June, 1927, I found an interesting little moss growing on a vertical face of a dry detached block of sandstone near Bagley. This station is at the base of a high bluff fronting directly on the Mississippi river. The moss looked something like Myurella julacea Bruch & Schimp., but when examined carefully, it proved to be Anomobryum. Some of our leading bryologists think it A. filiforme Husn. Others call it A. concinnatum (Spruce) Lindb. Late in March, 1928, this same moss was found here near my home, Barron, Barron County, Wisconsin. At this station it is on an exposure of Potsdam Sandstone. A few months ago, in going over some thirty-year-old bryological puzzles, I found four packets of plants that now prove to be this same Anomobryum. Three of these were taken in late July, I896, near Bayfield, Wisconsin, and the fourth was found about twenty miles west of Bayfield, at Herbster, Wisconsin, July I, 1897. In all cases the plants were growing on vertical or overhanging red sandstone (Potsdam) cliff-faces, and, in all, the plants are FRUITED. Mr. R. S. Williams of the New York Botanical Garden has very generously furnished me with a bit of specimen of A. concinnatum collected by E. A. Rau at Kaaterskill Falls, Catskill Mountains, New York, in I875-the original American station. Comparison of the Wisconsin plants with this shows them all to be the same thing. A detailed description of the sexual reproductive structures and the sporophyte will be published in the near future.

Three other puzzling mosses that I collected more than thirty years ago



-28-

have finally been identified. First of these, in order of discovery, is what I am calling Fissidens Ravenellii Sulliv. It was found, late in December, 1891, growing on the wall of a small cavern in an outcrop of St. Peter sandstone near the village of Fayette, Lafayette County, Wisconsin. It resembles both F. Garberi and F. Ravenellii. Its leaf-margins are like those given for the former, but, in habitat and several structural features, it is more like the latter. The plant was referred to Mrs. Britton and Mr. R. S. Williams, and, while neither of them felt justified in fixing definitely its status, because of the poor condition of the material, they were both agreed that it stands between the two species named above. Since getting their opinions, I have gone through my material very carefully and have found more evidence-the size of plants, and a charac- teristic turning to one side of all the leaves, as shown in Icones Muscorum- favoring F. Ravenellii; I am therefore calling it that for the present. This makes a very decided extension of range for the species.

The other two of my old time puzzles are two species of Rhabdoweisia. The first of these to be found is R. fugax Bruch & Schimp. It was taken in Adams County at the Dells of the Wisconsin river, August I, I894. It has been compared with Macoun's plant, collected on the north shore of Lake Supe- rior, July I6, 1872, kindly contributed by Mr. R. S. Williams, with which it agrees in all essential characters. Mr. Williams also examined plants sent to him and pronounces them R. fugax. About two years after finding Rhabdoweisia at the Dells of Wisconsin, I obtained similar plants from a red sandstone cliff- face near the Houghton quarries, Bayfield County, Wisconsin. These were collected July 25, 1896. They are more robust throughout than the plants collected at the Dells. Most of the leaves are costate to the apex; but their margins vary from almost entire to strongly dentate. The peristome agrees with the descriptions given for that of R. denticulata, with one exception. The teeth in my plants are smooth, but they are persistent. I am calling this plant R. denticulata Bruch & Schimp.

It may be of interest to the members of S. M. S. and the readers of THE BRYOLOGIST to know that. Orthotrichum obtusifolium Schrad., appears to be the commonest arboreal Orthotrichum throughout northern Wisconsin, and, probably, over the entire state. During the last three summers I have taken a sort of comparative census of the various species of Orthotrichum and, in practically every case, 0. obtusifolium was far ahead of all the others taken together, in frequency. With us, this plant varies in height from one-fourth of a centimeter to one and a half centimeters. The smaller, stunted forms are rather untidy, yellowish-brown objects, very easily overlooked. As stated in most of the texts, this species fruits very sparingly. In two years, I succeeded in finding not more than two dozen plants with sporophytes, either partially or completely developed. Judging from about a dozen mature capsules collected last spring, the spores mature in this latitude in late May or early June.

BARRON, WISC., DEC. 17, 1928.



Documents

Notes on Interesting Wisconsin Mosses, II