Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus

If there is a species which encapsulates our blindness to mosses more than any other, it is probably this one.

Before becoming interested in bryology, I squelched in Sphagnum, perched on Polytrichum and (to my shame) heavy-handedly hoisted Hypnum from its holds. All of these activities I recognised as involving "moss".

Activities I didn't associate with moss included football matches, eating picnics and cutting the grass.

But moss was there! Under my feet. Hidden, all the time...

I'm making this sound a bit alarming. but it was only Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus.

Here it is. Not scary at all.

But seriously everywhere. Well grasslands, mostly, particularly where the grass is kept in check by grazing or mowing. R. squarrosus grows in our garden, my parents garden, and the football pitch in Lochgilphead. In fact there are very few 10 km x 10 km hectads in Britain where R. squarrossus is not present.

And this ubiquitous moss, is really rather lovely.

It is irregularly pinnate, and you can only see the red stem, through the translucent bases of the leaves. These leaves are bent backwards, which makes the end of the shoots look sort of like a star. This is a useful way to make sure what you're looking at is not Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus or R. loreus, if you are unsure.

You can sort of see this feature in the picture at the top which I took through a x 10 hand lens. I'm a big fan of the picture through a hand lens approach.

The fact you can only see the stem through the translucent leaves is a good feature to ensure that any sample is not the much rarer Rhytidiadelphus subpinnatus.

As Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about in one of those rare examples of genuinely top-notch and un-grating scientific nature writing, Gathering Moss, it feels good to take the time to call out the name of these mosses which pass under our noses every day.