Dicranum howellii

Dicranum howellii : Over a year ago I tried to ID some Dicranum  on a stump  in my yard.  I could only get it down to genus.  Recently David Wagner helped me to ID a different Dicranum howellii  that I was struggling with.  Today I went back to my stump and tried once again to ID the Dicranum on my stump.  It feels good to finally be able to confidently ID it as Dicranum howellii .



Part of my motive for going back to that stump moss today was that I had just learned how to stack pictures in photoshop and I wanted something to practice on.  Here are some of the pictures I took today, a few of them are stacked.  Stacking pictures gives the same result as using an auto montage microscope, it evens out the depth of field so the whole photo is in focus.

This is 11 photos stacked together.  It shows the weak ridges on the back of the costa

This shows just one row of guide cells and very small ridges

This shows that the alar cells gradually transition into rectangular cells

This stacked photo shows the teeth or spines on the back of the costa, by stacking the images both the spines
and the leaf cells are in focus at the same time