Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous (FNA 2014), growing in soft, open, clumps of upright shoots, pale green (Crum and Anderson et al.1981), whitish-green, sometimes tinged with blue, glossy. Stems 2-25 mm tall (FNA 2014) or sometimes to 40 mm, russet, seldom forked, with a small number of rhizoids (Lawton 1971).

Leaves: Loosely upright to spreading about 45 degrees or more when damp (FNA 2014), similar when dry, smaller and more distant below, becoming longer, more slender and crowded above (Crum and Anderson et al.1981), egg-shaped to lance-shaped with ovate tendencies (Lawton 1971) or lance-shaped, sometimes widest near the middle, narrowing to the acute leaf tip; leaf edges flat (FNA 2014) or slightly curved back and downward in the upper stem leaves (Lawton 1971), in the apical region saw-toothed or finely so; costa ending near the leaf tip (FNA 2014) to well below it (Crum and Anderson et al.1981), red near the attachment (Lawton 1971).

Leaf Cells: Upper medial laminal cells long, narrow, and diamond-shaped to wavy and worm-like, with fine walls (FNA 2014).

Fruit ripens in summer (FNA 2014).

Soil and humus, embankments along trails and beneath protective sods and hanging roots, fissures in bluffs and large stones (Crum and Anderson et al.1981); montane (FNA 2014), occurring from lowlands (Lawton 1971) to high elevations (FNA 2014).

Antheridia in axils of perichaetia or upper leaves (FNA 2014), occasionally mixing with the archegonia (Crum and Anderson et al.1981), seldom dioicous. Perigonia long and thin to narrowly lance-shaped in dioicous plants, the base egg-shaped. Perichaetial bracts long, slender and lance-shaped, quite to faintly distinct from the stem leaves (FNA 2014). Seta 10-30 mm tall (Lawton 1971), solitary, brown, and sometimes tinged with orange. Capsule carried well-beyond the perichaetial bracts, straw-colored to brown with orange tones, inclined slightly away from vertical to drooping about 135 degrees, long and narrow (FNA 2014); urn (including neck) 3-4.5 mm in length; neck typically not as long as the remainder of the capsule and not clearly demarcated (Lawton 1971); stomata occurring on the capsule’s surface (FNA 2014) in the neck region (Crum and Anderson et al.1981); exostome teeth slender and deltoid, ochre to russet, pitted below (FNA 2014), finely and thickly papillose above (Crum and Anderson et al.1981); endostome processes keeled, with openings on the keel; cilia ranging from short to tall (FNA 2014), knobby (Lawton 1971).