Specimen #2 Hornwort

Figure 1. Phaeoceros growing on rock wall.

Figure 2. Phaeoceros  with mature sporophyte.

Name: Phaeoceros
Family: Notothyladaceae

Collection Date: Sept. , 2011

Habitat: Terrestrial; growing on rocks and soil; damp areas

Location: South Chagrin Reservation, Ohio

Description: Lobed, thalloid, slick/slimy, dark green appearance with hornlike sporophytes growing directly from the thallus.
Collector: Jennifer Friedler

Key used: Conard, H.S. and P.L. Redfearn, Jr. 1979. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts 2^nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass.

Keying Steps:

Introduction key pg. 19

1b. Plants thalloid...4

4a. Thalloid with one chloroplast per cell...pg 230 Anthocerotae

Key to Family Anthocerotae pg. 230

1a. capsule erect, 1-3cm long, becoming black after splitting...2

2? spores yellow...Phaeoceros

"Thallus dark green, .5-3cm in diameter, deeply lobed, on moist soil and rocks, widespread in North America" (Conrad 231). 

Phaeoceros Links:

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PHLA24