A Quintet of Cobras: Dried Moss Sporophytes

A few days ago, I took my camera up to the top of our ridge and went for a walk to see what I could find. At one point, I saw a circle of ashes where the Forest Service had burned a pile of branches, logs and leaves. (This is done to keep the "forest fuel" level down so the fire danger is not as bad.) I saw that something had been growing in the ashes, so I took a close look. To my utter surprise, there was almost a carpet of these moss sporophytes growing very tall above the ashes, which is really only about 2", but hey, that's tall for these delicate beauties!

When I saw this image on my computer, I was so fascinated that I had to find out more. I discovered that sporophytes are the equivelent of a flower, but instead of producing pollen, they release spores! The spores are released from a capsule which grows at the tips, but they are long-gone from these dried sporophytes. I think these look like little russet-colored sculptures!

This image was taken in February, 2012.