fountain apple moss

Noun

fountain apple moss (uncountable)

1. Philonotis fontana, an epilithic moss in the family Bartramiaceae.
   • The moss was tall, its stems measuring three or four inches, branched and matted together; the leaves were broad and tapering, of a yellow-green colour; and the long fruit-stalks bore large round reddish urns. It was undoubtedly the Fountain Apple moss (Bartramia fontana, fig. 9).1861, Margaret Plues, Rambles in Search of Mosses, page 39
   • Philonotis fontana, the fountain Apple Moss, is common near springs and in wet places, and has stems 1-6 in., with reddish-black radicles ; leaves ovate-acuminate, short ; nerve almost excurrent ; perigonial leaves, obtuse, nerveless […]1883, The Microscopical News and Northern Microscopist, volume 3