Beaked beardless moss (Weissia rostellata)

Description

What’s the World’s Favourite Species?

Beaked beardless moss fact file

• Description
• Biology
• Range
• Habitat
• Status
• Threats
• Conservation
• Find out more
• Glossary
• References
• Print factsheet

Beaked beardless moss description

Beaked beardless moss is a small moss that grows in tufts on damp soil and drying mud ⁽⁴⁾.

Size

Height: up to 5 mm ⁽²⁾

Beaked beardless moss biology

Mosses, hornworts and liverworts form a group of simple plants called bryophytes. Bryophytes lack many of the more complex structures of the higher plants, such as a vascular system, and flowers. They do not have roots, instead they have structures called 'rhizoids' which absorb water and anchor the plant to the substrate. All bryophytes have an interesting life cycle consisting of two main parts, called the gametophyte and sporophyte generations. Plants that are in the gametophyte stage can reproduce sexually. Male organs (antheridia) produce sex cells, which move to the female organs (archgonia). Fertilisation occurs and a 'sporophyte' develops, this structure remains attached to the plant. The sporophyte releases spores, which disperse and develop into a new plant ⁽⁵⁾.

Beaked beardless moss range

This moss has always been considered as very scarce in Britain, and is believed to have declined ⁽⁴⁾, as it has disappeared from more than a third of recorded sites since 1950 ⁽²⁾. Recent records of this species come from Lothian to Anglesey and Dorset, and are thinly spread ⁽³⁾. In continental Europe, it has a scattered distribution from southern Norway and Sweden in the north, to France, Italy and Slovenia in the south, reaching as far east as the Ukraine ⁽³⁾.

You can view distribution information for this species at the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

Beaked beardless moss habitat

This moss grows on damp soil or drying mud at the edges of reservoirs and pools, when the water recedes during summer and autumn. It also occurs in patches of bare soil by rivers ⁽³⁾, and in arable fields and damp grassland ⁽⁴⁾.

Beaked beardless moss status

Classified as Near Threatened in Great Britain, and receives general protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 ⁽³⁾.

Beaked beardless moss threats

A number of factors pose threats to this species, including the maintenance of permanently high water levels at occupied sites, drainage of damp pasture land ⁽⁴⁾, fertiliser use and other agricultural improvements that reduce the amount of bare patches ⁽³⁾. Other threats include eutrophication of water bodies, and the spread of the introduced invasive plant, New Zealand pygmy weed, Crassula helmsii ⁽⁴⁾, which blankets mud, removing suitable habitat, and scrub invasion ⁽⁴⁾.

Beaked beardless moss conservation

Beaked beardless moss is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species, and as such, it has a Species Action Plan to guide its conservation. It is also included in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme, which has part-funded survey work on this moss in conjunction with Plantlife, the wild plant conservation charity ⁽⁴⁾. Several populations occur within Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), and so receive a degree of protection ⁽³⁾.

The UK Biodiversity Action Plan for this species is available at UK BAP.

There may be further information about this species available via the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

Authentication

Information authenticated by Plantlife, the wild plant conservation charity:
http://www.plantlife.org.uk

Glossary

Eutrophication

Nutrient enrichment of aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems.

Gametophyte

A life cycle stage in plants, which has one set of chromosomes (threads of DNA protein) in the cell nucleus (a condition known as ‘haploid’), which arises from a spore (which is also haploid). Sex cells (gametes) are produced during the gametophyte stage. This is the dominant life-cycle stage in liverworts and mosses.

Rhizoids

Thread-like structures that help to anchor the plant to the substrate, and absorb minerals and water. In liverworts they consist of a single cell, in mosses they are multi-cellular.

Spore

Microscopic particles involved in both dispersal and reproduction. They comprise a single or group of unspecialised cells and do not contain an embryo, as do seeds.

Sporophyte

The stage of a plant life cycle that produces spores (microscopic particles used in dispersal and reproduction). This stage is diploid (in the cell nucleus there are two sets of chromosomes - threads of DNA protein) and is dominant in ‘higher’ plants such as flowering plants.

Vascular system

In plants, the system that allows water and nutrients to move around.

References

1. Systema Naturae 2000 / Classification- Parker (1982) - (July 2002): http://members.ams.chello.nl/jwabr/SN2000/1982%20Parker/Classification/1.htm
2. The Environment Agency (2000) Focus on Biodiversity. The Environment Agency, Bristol.
3. UK BAP Species Action Plan (July 2002): http://www.ukbap.org.uk
4. Holyoak, D. T. (2002) Violet crystalwort (Riccia huebeneriana) and beaked beardless-moss (Weissia rostellata): Report to Plantlife on work carried out in southern England during 2001. Report number 198, ISBN 1 87261369 1. Plantlife, London.
5. Mosses and Liverworts in Wales. (July 2002): http://home.clara.net/adhale/bryos/