Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous. Growing in large, open patches or as well-spaced, upright individuals (FNA 2014), frequently shiny (Lawton 1971), typically light green, sometimes tinged with pale red below. Stems 10-40 mm tall, not forked; rhizoids restricted to the base, scarce (FNA 2014).

Leaves: Leaves larger and dense above and forming rosettes, becoming scalelike below,
overlapping or a little bent and twisted when dry, spreading to about 45 degrees when wet (FNA 2014); scalelike leaves small and egg-shaped (Lawton 1971); leaves of the rosette 4-6 mm in length, widely egg-shaped, sometimes with the broader part closer to the distal end, narrowing above to the acute leaf tip, sometimes forming a mucro, the base extending down the stem, the edges flat and saw-toothed (seldom smooth) above, rolled back and under below, with a strong border, and the costa reaching the leaf tip (FNA 2014).

Leaf Cells: Lower laminal cells long and quadrangular; middle and upper laminal cells shorter than those below, typically diamond-shaped to 6-sided, their longer dimension not transverse to the leaf length, fine-walled; margins 1 cell-layer thick, the thick-walled cells forming a border of 1-2 series; costa in X-section with dorsal stereid band weak to very faint (FNA 2014).

Fruit ripens mid- to late-summer (FNA 2014).

Shrub and tree detritus and humus in evergreen forests. Elevation: 0-10,500 feet (FNA 2014).

Dioicous. Sporophytes seldom produced. Antheridia yellow, numerous. Perichaetial bracts rosulate, the interior ones more slender and with costa not as strong (FNA 2014). Seta 3-5 cm tall (Lawton 1971), yellow, turning russet eventually, usually solitary, occasionally 2 in a perichaetium, straight, bearing the capsule well beyond the bracts. Capsule brown, drooping, elongate, 4-7 mm in length, sometimes bowed a little, with a distinct neck; exostome teeth with a slender border, papillae, and transverse cross bars; endostome processes with openings on the keel; cilia knobby (FNA 2014).