Montana Field Guide

Plants: Pleurocarpous, growing in shiny, interwoven mats (Lawton 1971), light green, or green with russet, gold or yellow tones. Stems prostrate to upright, erratically pinnate to branching little, 1-8 cm or more (FNA 2014), the apices frequently hooked (Lawton 1971), light green, sometimes with yellow tones, turning brown over time; branches 1-3 cm in length; hyalodermis lacking and central strand weakly formed; pseudoparaphyllia composed of filaments (FNA 2014), few (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); cortical stem cells tiny and with thick walls (Lawton 1971).

Stem Leaves: Overlapping, sometimes curved in sickle-like fashion and turned in one direction, 1.5-2 mm in length, to 0.8 mm in width (FNA 2014), cupped (Lawton 1971), egg-shaped to lance-shaped and somewhat rectangular, slowly or suddenly tapering to the narrow acumen, the base not extending down the stem; leaf edges flat or curved back and down near the base, finely saw-toothed above, sometimes faintly so or almost smooth; costa paired and short or faint; branch leaves akin to stem leaves (FNA 2014).

Leaf Cells: Upper laminal cells narrowly diamond-shaped and frequently thick-walled (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), not papillose; medial laminal cells longer and narrower than the basal cells; basal laminal cells uncolored and the walls nonporose; alar cells somewhat transparent or colored yellow to brown, the lowermost cells bigger, the area distinctly delineated (FNA 2014).

Hypnum cupressiforme var. cupressiforme: Present in Montana. Stems nearly upright or bending downward, 1-3 cm in length, the leaves typically curved to very curved, the branch leaves about 1-2 mm or more in length, the edges nearly smooth to toothed above, the alar cells neither colored nor concave (FNA 2014).

Hypnum cupressiforme var. filiforme: Stems prostrate, 2-6 cm in length, the leaves a little curved to straight, the branch leaves about 1-1.4 mm in length or a little smaller, slowly tapering to the apex, the margins smooth or nearly so (FNA 2014).

Hypnum cupressiforme var. julaceum: Stems prostrate to upright, about 5 cm in length, the branch leaves 1-1.4 mm in length or a little smaller, suddenly constricted at the apex, the margins smooth or nearly so (FNA 2014).

Hynum cupressiforme var. subjulaceum: Stems prostrate, 5-8 cm or more in length, the leaves a little curved to straight, the branch leaves 1.5-2 mm or more in length, the alar cells colored and concave (FNA 2014).

Variety cupressiforme: Fruit ripens in spring (FNA 2014).

Varieties filiforme, julaceum, and subjulaceum: Fruit maturation time unknown (FNA 2014).

Dependable characteristics in most Hypnum species are inconstant in this highly polymorphic species ascribed with more than 60 varietal descriptions to date (FNA 2014).

The cupped leaves cause the reflecting light to create an unusual “satin sheen” or greyish cast on the plants (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981).

The most dependable distinguishing characteristic of the similar Hypnum vaucheri may be its leafy pseudoparaphyllia with dull ends; those of H. cupressiforme are lance-shaped to filamentous (FNA 2014).

Variety cupressiforme: Tree bases and decaying wood (Elliott and Pipp 2016), stone. Occurring from lowlands to about 13,120 feet elevation (FNA 2014).

Variety filiforme: Sheer bluff faces and on trees. Occurring from lowlands to about 8200 feet elevation (FNA 2014).

Variety julaceum: Level faces in brightly lit areas, particularly in mountains and northerly latitudes. Occurring from lowlands to about 8200 feet elevation (FNA 2014).

Variety subjulaceum: Ledges of bluffs and level stone faces, in open and protected habitats, typically on basic surfaces. Occurring from lowlands to about 13,120 feet elevation (FNA 2014).

Dioicous. Exterior perichaetial bracts bent back and downward; interior perichaetial bracts upright with a thin acumen, finely saw-toothed above. Seta 10-30 mm tall, somewhat red, smooth. Capsule 1.8-2.8 mm in length, somewhat red, a little tilted (FNA 2014), bowed to some extent, not shrunken below the opening when dry (Lawton 1971);operculum cone-shaped to beaked; exostome teeth 16, with a zigzag line on the outer face, fine lines or ridges below, and papillae above; endostome processes 16, similar in height as the teeth, keeled, cilia present. Calyptra hairless and draping hood-like (FNA 2014).