Bartramia alaris
Common names
moss
Biostatus
Native
Category
Non-vascular
Structural class
Mosses
Detailed description
Gracile, tufted, terricolous yellow-green moss of open ground. Stems 10-20 mm tall, simple, slightly radiculose below, densely foliate. Leaves 4.0-4.5 mm long suberect, flexuose when dry but neither crisped nor strict; slightly incurved when moist; from a very short deltoid-triangular base gradually narrowed to a linear-subulate subula, with an robust apex; margins throughout narrowly revolute, bistratose above, spinulose-dentate in two or more rows. Nerve 50-60 microns wide, subequal throughout, projecting dorsally, excurrent, serrate on the back towards the apex. Upper cells 7-10 microns long, very shortly rectangular or subquadrate, obscure and papillose; lower cells in the dilated base pale, empty, narrowly linear; those at the angles laxer, forming a small and distinct but not clearly defined alar group; those at the insertion orange-yellow. Fruits not yet seen.
Distribution
Indigenous. North Island, Hawke’s Bay (Havelock North).
Substrate details
Soil in open or sparsely vegetated ground.
Current conservation status
This is the first complete assessment of all known species of mosses found in the wild in Aotearoa New Zealand with a total of 560 species being assessed. The conservation status of mosses, published in the NZTCS database, replaces all previous assessments of mosses. Data supporting the 2025 NZTCS assessment of mosses has been published on the NZTCS database at https://nztcs.org.nz/reports/1155.
Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2025 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: OL, PE, TO
Threats
Unknown. This species has been collected only once in 1929 from pasture at Havelock North (Hawke’s Bay) and it has not been seen since though no one has specifically searched for it either (see Glenny et al. 2011).
Detailed taxonomy
Genus
Family
Synonyms
None
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Fruiting
Not yet seen
Other information
Etymology
alaris: Axillary
Previous conservation statuses
This is the first complete assessment of all known species of mosses found in the wild in Aotearoa New Zealand with a total of 560 species being assessed. The conservation status of mosses, published in the NZTCS database, replaces all previous assessments of mosses. Data supporting the 2025 NZTCS assessment of mosses has been published on the NZTCS database at https://nztcs.org.nz/reports/1155.
Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2014 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: OL, TO
2010 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: OL, TO
2005 | Threatened – Nationally Critical | Qualifiers: TO, DP
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Glenny, D.; Fife, A.J.; Brownsey, P.J.; Renner, M.A.M.; Braggins, J.E.; Beever, J.E.; Hitchmough, R. 2011: Threatened and uncommon bryophytes of New Zealand (2010 Revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 49: 305-327.
Sainsbury, G.O.K. 1955: A handbook of the New Zealand mosses. Royal Society of New Zealand Bulletin 5.
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (1 October 2007). Description adapted from Sainsbury (1955).