Montana Field Guide

Plants: Pleurocarpous (Vitt 1988). Growing in open to crowded, somewhat glossy mats, green with yellow or brown tinges to brown. Stems creeping to curving upward (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981), somewhat pinnate or freely forked, the scant branching in one plane; possessing a central strand; hyalodermis and paraphyllia wanting; rhizoids or their initials produced on the dorsal side of the costal attachment or on the stem, not forming woolly mats (FNA 2014).

Leaves: Stem leaves spreading to a little more upright, curved like a sickle or straight, egg-shaped, sometimes widely so, or deltoid with rounded angles, tapering to form a long acumen, cupped, 1.3-3.5 mm in length and 0.6 – 1.1 mm in width; margins smooth or sometimes wavy, unbordered; acumen grooved; base spreading to a little more upright; costa single (or eventually forked) and extending to half the leaf length or a little more or paired and not reaching mid leaf (FNA 2014), the double costa rare (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981).

Leaf Cells: Alar cells differentiated, swollen, transparent (FNA 2014) to golden (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981), the area forming a well-demarcated triangle across the leaf, extending from 2/3 to the entire distance from the leaf edge to the costa; marginal cells in 1 layer (FNA 2014); distal cells very thin (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981).

The similar Campylium stellatum has wider leaves that spread more (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981).

Organic soil in meadows, forested bogs (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981), and other wetlands high in minerals and nutrients, underwater in lakes and ponds. Elevation: low to high (FNA 2014).

Autoicous and polygamous. Seta mostly 1.5-3.5 (up to 5) mm tall (Crum & Anderson et al. 1981). Capsule bowed and level; margins of exostome smooth a little toothed above; endostome cilia knobby and sometimes transversely ridged (FNA 2014).