Glass hair

Glass hair of a leaf of the roof toothed moss ( Tortula ruralis )

As glass hair is in some mosses mostly colorless, hair-like elongated blade tip called.

Glass hair is supposed to protect the moss leaf from excessive sunlight. The glass hair plays another important function as a condensation nucleus . Mosses should be able to absorb water vapor from 30 percent relative humidity . Dead glass hair can also play a role as an antiperspirant . The glass hair also serves as a trickle tip and should allow excess water to drain off.

literature

• Volkmar Wirth , Ruprecht Düll : Color Atlas of Lichen and Moss. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3517-5 .
• Peter Sitte , Elmar Weiler , Joachim W. Kadereit , Andreas Bresinsky , Christian Körner : Textbook of botany for universities . Founded by Eduard Strasburger . 35th edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1010-X .