Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous (FNA 2014), growing in open clumps of upright shoots or more dispersed, pale green (Lawton 1971) to green, sometimes with red tones, extremely shiny. Stems 5-15 mm tall (FNA 2014), russet, seldom forked; rhizoids several to numerous, papillose (Lawton 1971).

Leaves: Firmly upright, somewhat overlapping, spreading about 45 degrees when damp, lance-shaped (FNA 2014), narrowing to the long-acuminate leaf tip (Lawton 1971); leaf edges flat (FNA 2014) or slightly curved back and downward in part (Lawton 1971), in the apical region leaf edges faintly and finely saw-toothed; base only slightly decurrent, if at all; costa not extending close to the leaf tip (FNA 2014), red proximally (Lawton 1971).

Leaf Cells: Upper medial laminal cells wide and diamond-shaped with fine walls (FNA 2014).

Fruit ripens in spring (FNA 2014).

Moist (Lawton 1971), often calcareous, fine-textured soil, rarely sandy, in disturbed areas, such as path embankments and along watercourses. Occurring from lowlands to middle elevations (FNA 2014).

Dioicous. Perigonial bracts sometimes reaching 3 mm in length (FNA 2014), terminal. Seta 10-20 mm tall (Lawton 1971), solitary, brown and tinged with orange. Capsule carried well-beyond the perichaetial bracts, russet or occasionally straw-colored, drooping vertically or very nearly so (FNA 2014), the theca including neck 0.75-1.5 mm in length; neck short (Lawton 1971); stomata sunken; exostome teeth deltoid, pale brown to yellow, pitted below (FNA 2014), papillose (Lawton 1971); endostome processes ochre to yellow, narrow, noticeably keeled with wide openings on the keel; cilia knobby and long (FNA 2014).