Montana Field Guide

Plants: Pleurocarpous (Vitt 1988), usually growing prostrate in soft, loose mats, but commonly in upright tufts, occasionally floating on or submerged in water, green or chartreuse, brown below. Stems usually 2-5 cm in length (up to 40 cm in aquatic plants) (Flowers 1973), possessing a central strand with small cells in the outer layers (Lawton 1971).

Leaves: Curved like a sickle or occasionally straight (FNA 2014), sometimes curved only at the ends of the stems or branches (Lawton 1971), ovate-lanceolate to widely ovate or rounded-deltoid, progressively tapered to the leaf tip, concave, 0.9-5.1 mm in length, 0.4-1.6 mm in width; margins not bordered, smooth or seldom very delicately toothed (FNA 2014), occasionally incurved distally (Lawton 1971); apex acute or tapering to a short to long narrow point; costa solitary, extending to mid leaf or further, but not closely approaching the apex (FNA 2014).

Leaf Cells: Marginal cells unistratose; alar cells short, rectangular or linear (FNA 2014), colorless and swollen, the alar area distinct and stretching from margin to costa or nearly so; median cells long and thin, quite variable in length (Lawton 1971).

Drepanocladus aduncus is often mistaken for Sarmentypnum or Warnstorfia species. Warnstorfia plants usually display red colors when growing in open surroundings, whereas D. aduncus never does. At least a few leaves of most Warnstorfia and Sarmenthypnum species (uncommon in S. trichophyllum) nearly always have rhizoids initials near their tips; this is never the case in D. aduncus (FNA 2014).

On wet soil, sometimes semi-aquatic (Elliott 2016) in lakes, swamps, and wetlands plentiful in nutrients and minerals (FNA 2014).

Dioicous; rarely fruiting (Flowers 1973). Seta 3-6 cm in length. Capsule rounded; urn 2-3 mm in length (Lawton 1971), light ochre in color when ripe (Flowers 1973).