A tiny orchard grows on the rocks. A moss that grows fruit too small to eat. Bartramia apple moss forms dense, pale green to bluish-green cushions of upright stems with narrow, pointed leaves arranged in a tight spiral. The cushions look like small, green pincushions. But the real show is happening elsewhere. A moss that hides its best feature. The sporophytes – the spore-producing structures – grow on short stalks from the stem tips. The capsules are spherical, pale green to yellowish-green, and covered in tiny, white, star-shaped hairs. They look exactly like miniature apples. A crop of microscopic fruit on a tiny orchard, no bigger than a pinhead. A moss that grows apples. These are the most distinctive capsules of any moss in New Zealand. They are not urns or cups or pods. They are tiny, green, fuzzy spheres that seem to belong on a tree, not a moss. It is the moss of the miniature orchard, growing fruit too small to eat but too cute to ignore. The leaves themselves are narrow and pointed, with a distinct midrib and a toothed margin near the tip. The dense spiral arrangement gives the plant a neat, tidy appearance. Reproduction happens by spores released from those apple-like capsules, the white star-shaped hairs helping with dispersal. To find bartramia apple moss is to find dense, pale green cushions on a rock or bank – then look for the tiny, green, spherical capsules. The rock is damp. The moss cushions sit, pale green and dense. The tiny apples rise on short stalks, fuzzy and green. A hand lens is needed to see them properly. Without it, they are just specks. But they are there. Growing fruit no bigger than a pinhead. A tiny orchard on a rock.