Ceratodon purpureus is a dioicous moss

Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...

 with a color ranging from yellow-green to red. The height amounts to 3 centimeters. It is found worldwide, mainly in urban areas and next to roads on dry sand soils. It can grow in a very wide variety of habitats, from polluted

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

 highway shoulders and mine tailings

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 to areas recently denuded by wildfire

Wildfire

A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

 to the bright slopes of Antarctica. Its common names include ceratodon moss, fire moss, and purple horn toothed moss.

The short leaves are hairy and spread out with sufficient moisture. The moss reproduces generatively

Sporogenesis

Sporogenesis is the production of spores in biology. The term is also used to refer to the process of reproduction via spores. Reproductive spores are formed in many eukaryotic organisms, such as plants, algae and fungi, during their normal reproductive life cycle...

 with spores and vegetatively

Vegetative reproduction

Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...

 through protonema

Protonema

A protonema is a thread-like chain of cells that forms the earliest stage of a bryophyte life cycle...

ta. The sporangia

Sporangium

A sporangium is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. All plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cycle...

are in an upright position on a long stem. The spores sprout in two phases. First they swell, then they spread out. The spores can remain able to sprout for over 16 years.