This moss appears in a variety of ways during the year. Shriveled up during dry periods, this moss quickly becomes lush and glistening when wet. The gametophyte form has large, transparent leaves, alternate on long stems, which creep over, and cascade down over substrate such as fallen logs (A). The sporophyte-producing form, with large leaves forming a rosette (C), start very early in the year (January) to grow stalks (B), which are soon topped with thin, then recurved capsules, each with a protective sleeve called a calyptra covering its tip (C,D,E,F). By April the capsules turn a light brown (G), their tip (operculum) falls off to allow their spores to be dispersed through a fringe of teeth (peristome). The extreme close-up of a capsule showing the peristome (H) was not taken in the field, but with a special lens set-up at home – an exception to our rules on photography.