Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous (FNA 2014), growing in clumps of upright shoots (Lawton 1971), light green (FNA 2014) or green with yellow tones, brown proximally (Lawton 1971), not shiny. Stems 3-8 mm tall (FNA 2014), reddish distally, seldom forked; rhizoids scarce (Lawton 1971).

Leaves: Overlapping, or a little curved and twisted when dry, upright to spreading about 45 degrees or more when damp (FNA 2014), cupped, the lower leaves wider and egg-shaped, the upper leaves becoming longer and lance-shaped with ovate tendencies, narrowing to an obtuse or sometimes more narrowly-angled leaf tip (Lawton 1971), the tips of sterile plants faintly cucullate; leaf edges flat (FNA 2014) or occasionally slightly curved back and downward in part (Lawton 1971), in the apical region the leaf edges saw-toothed or finely so; costa ending near the leaf tip (FNA 2014).

Leaf Cells: Upper medial laminal cells wide and diamond-shaped to 6-sided, fine-walled (FNA 2014); apical cells short (Lawton 1971).

Fruit ripens in summer (FNA 2014).

The similar Pohlia drummondii also has keeled leaves, but the leaves are not cucullate, the laminal cells are narrower, and the plants are dioicous rather than monoicous and sometimes bear axillary gemmae (FNA 2014).

Moist soil in subalpine and higher places with lingering snow (FNA 2014) and along watercourses (Lawton 1971).

Monoicous (FNA 2014), with antheridia in twos in the axils of upper leaves (Lawton 1971), near the archegonia but not mingling. Perichaetial bracts widely lance-shaped, similar to the stem leaves (FNA 2014). Seta 10-30 mm tall (Lawton 1971), solitary, brown and tinged with orange. Capsule carried well-beyond the perichaetial bracts, straw-colored to brown with orange tones, drooping vertically or nearly so; neck distinct (FNA 2014), not as long as the remainder of the capsule, theca counting the neck 2-3 mm in length (Lawton 1971); stomata occurring on the capsule’s surface (FNA 2014)); exostome teeth brown, ochre or yellow, pitted below (FNA 2014), papillose; endostome processes pale yellow (Lawton 1971) to transparent, slightly keeled with wide openings on the keel; cilia not present (FNA 2014).