Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous, growing in upright clumps, or crowded patches and cushions. Deep green to green, shiny. Stems sometimes reaching 50 mm in height, upright or decumbent, with a central strand, a few reddish rhizoids, and several axillary hairs in leaf junctures, their upper 5-7 cells longer than the 2 or 3 below (FNA 2007).

Leaves: Wavy, twisted or curled when dry, sloping upward when moist, 4-6 mm in length (FNA 2007), becoming lance-shaped from a wide base, tapering to a long acumen; margins 1 or 2 cell-layers in thickness (Lawton 1971), curving back and under on one or both edges below, saw-toothed above; apical margin flat to upright but not becoming hood-like; costa strong (FNA 2007).

Leaf Cells: Lamina mostly 1 cell-layer thick, but with patches with 2 cell-layers, the cells smooth, nonporose; distal cells isodiametric; lower cells slender and long (Lawton 1971); medial cells similar in width as in length, in longitudinal rows, sometimes weakly papillose (FNA 2007).

Fruit ripens in early spring through early autumn (FNA 2007).

Calcareous stone, including concrete, and other rocks, especially in exposed habitats beside water courses, seldom on soil or wood. Occurring from lowlands to 4590 feet elevation (FNA 2007).

Autoicous. Perigonia bud-like, on short stalks (FNA 2007) at the base of the seta (Lawton 1971). Perichaetia at stem apex, but quickly grown over with innovations, the bracts short (FNA 2007) and similar to stem leaves (Lawton 1971). Seta rarely to 3 in a perichaetium, 4-10 mm tall, carrying the capsule well beyond the perichaetial bracts. Capsule brown, upright, 2.5 mm in length, sometimes faintly longitudinally furrowed when dry; peristome teeth 16, of thread-like divisions, covered in papillae. Calyptra base deeply dissected (half the calyptra’s length or longer), the divisions slender, the lobes frequently flaring outward when dry (FNA 2007), bell-shaped (Lawton 1971) and somewhat pleated (FNA 2007).