Description

General - yellow-brown to brown; stems slightly to irregularly feather branched, 2 - 5 cm long; forms tufts and mats.

Leaves - long, narrow, pleated lengthwise, all turned in same direction, almost curled around in crescent moon.

Sporophytes - stalk red, 15 - 30 mm long, irregularly twisted; capsule brown, 2 - 3 mm long, strongly curved, almost horizontal.

Habitat

Soil, humus, rock, decayed wood, tree bases; wet to fairly dry sites, from gravel bars to peatlands (especially fens and swamps) to upland forests (usually at bases of trees or boulders); widespread across Northwestern Ontario's boreal forest; infrequent in favourable microsites in prairie and parkland; nearly cosmopolitan in cooler climates.

Notes

The pleated leaves and sickle-shaped branch tips are distinctive of this species. The name Drepanocladus, comes from the Latin drepano, 'curved' and clado, 'a branch', refers to the sickle-shaped leaves characteristic of the genus. The common name, 'sickle moss', and the species name, uncinatus, from the Latin, uncio, 'hooked', both refer to the hook-shaped cluster of leaves at the tip of each stem.

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