Montana Field Guide

Plants: Growing in small, crowded patches or convex cushions of upright shoots, green with yellow tones to deep olive green, frosted with hyaline awns (FNA 2007), and pale brown proximally (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981). Stems few-branched, 5-15 mm tall, catkin-like (FNA 2007).

Leaves: Crowded, closely-appressed and overlapping when dry (FNA 2007), spreading when wet, cupped but not keeled (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), 0.4-0.9 mm in length (minus the awn), elliptic to egg-shaped with the broad end distal, ending in an obtuse, rounded apex plus awn, the awn 0.2-1.3 mm in length, to twice as long as the rest of the blade (FNA 2007), finely saw-toothed (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); margins flat, smooth or sometimes faintly saw-toothed above (FNA 2007); costa disappearing into the bottom of the awn (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981).

Leaf Cells: Upper lamina 1 cell-layer thick, seldom with stretches of 2 layers, the cells somewhat long and diamond-shaped; medial cells egg-shaped to erratically diamond-shaped, shorter than the upper cells; lower cells square to short and somewhat oblong; costa in X-section flat on the ventral surface (FNA 2007).

Fruit ripens in spring and summer (FNA 2007).

J. wrightii tends to occur in hotter, drier areas than its close relative, J. raui, extending further south and generally occurring at lower elevations. J. raui has a costa in X-section distinctly longitudinally folded rather than flat on the ventral surface as in J. wrightii. It also has lower leaves spreading rather than usually lying flat against the stem (FNA 2007).

Calcareous rock and sandstone, dry shrublands and prairies, dry, open woods. Occurring from lowlands to about 9190 feet in elevation (FNA 2007).

Usually autoicous. Perichaetial bracts longer and with mostly longer awns than the vegetative leaves. Seta straight, 0.2-0.4 mm tall, leaving the capsule hidden amongst the bracts. Capsule ochre, becoming russet over time, 0.7-1 mm (FNA 2007), creased when dry (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); operculum with a short beak (FNA 2007); peristome teeth split into about 4 filiform divisions or perforate almost to the bottom, with numerous papillae (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981). Calyptra bell-shaped to somewhat cone-shaped (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), shielding about 3/4 of the capsule (FNA 2007).