Common Smoothcap - Atrichum undulatum
This distinctive species can form extensive patches, usually dark green, but sometimes yellower when well-lit. The erect stems reach 7 cm, with leaves to 1 cm in length with toothed margins. The leaves are rippled tranversely with undulations running across the leaves. Using a hand lens, several plates of tissue can be seen as dark lines running longitudinally up the leaf over the nerve.
Cylindrical capsules are frequent, 3 to 4 mm long with a long weak beak of similar length, on a 2 to 4 cm long reddish seta.
Usually found in shaded, well-drained woodlands on all but the most extreme soils. Can also be found on heaths, grasslands or rocky ledges.
Very common and widespread in Britain.
Frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland.
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Species profile
- Common names
- Common Smoothcap
- Species group:
- Mosses & Liverworts
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Polytrichales
- Family:
- Polytrichaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 62
- First record:
- 10/11/1991 (Dennis Ballard)
- Last record:
- 19/02/2025 (Alton, John)
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% of records within its species group
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