Dicranum tauricum
Distinguishing Features
Grows as dark green and glossy tufts or cushions. It has thin shoots about 2 cm high, with fine, erect, needle-like leaves. When brushed with your finger, the tips of the leaves break off (not the entire stalk).
Similar species
No other common Dicranum species in the region has brittle leaf tips. The fragments that emerge from D. howellii are much larger and include pieces of stem, not just the leaf tips. Dicranella and Cynodontium also have fine shoots and leaves, but they are neither erect nor fragile. Species of Campylopus can have a similar growth form, but it has a vein that is wider than half of the leaf. D. fragilifolium, an uncommon boreal and eastern species, cannot be distinguished from this species without a microscope and sporophytes.
Habitat
Associated species
Hypnum circinale, Dicranum fuscensens, Dicranoweisia cirrata, Scapania bolanderi, Isothecium stoloniferum