Bonfire Moss

Bonfire moss (Funaria hygrometrica), also called common cord-moss, is a moss of the family Funariaceae with a green, soft, upright plant body about half an inch tall, branched rhizoids with oblique cross-walls, and spirally arranged leaves with a distinct midrib; it carries a male reproductive structure at the tip of its main stem and a female structure on a side branch. It grows on shady, moist soil and can colonize moist walls, rock crevices, and ground recently burned by fire, and has even been found growing in artificially lit caves with no natural light, where it develops longer stems and narrower leaves. Studies have found it unusually tolerant of heavy water, able to survive in water that is 90 percent deuterium oxide.