Montana Field Guide

Plants: Pleurocarpous (Vitt 1988), growing in open to crowded mats (Lawton 1971), sometimes extensive (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), green or green with yellow tones (Lawton 1971), shiny. Stems rarely reaching 13 cm in length, with branching crowded and erratic, possessing a central strand; pseudoparaphyllia with narrowly-angled apices. Branches rarely reaching 17 mm (FNA 2014), creeping or strongly curving upward (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981).

Stem Leaves: Upright or spreading to about 45 degrees, a little cupped, usually not pleated except in larger leaves, widely deltoid and somewhat ovate, widest at or within the proximal 10% of the leaf length, 0.5-2.6 mm in length, 0.4-1.8 mm in width (FNA 2014), the apex narrowly-angled (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); base extending down the stem; leaf edges flat or curved back and downward below (FNA 2014), occasionally the margins not as strongly dentate as in the branch leaves (Lawton 1971); costa over half to 85% of the leaf length with a dorsal spine at the end (FNA 2014).

Branch Leaves: Smaller than the stem leaves, and also smaller at the stem tips (Lawton 1971), the more crowded leaves upright, those more distant often spreading widely (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), usually 0.2-1.3 mm in length, seldom reaching 1 mm in width, the tip dull (FNA 2014) and frequently twisted (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); costa over half to 90% of the leaf length (FNA 2014).

Leaf Cells: Laminal cells very slender; alar region small and somewhat well-defined (FNA 2014), the cells nearly square, oblong, or oddly-shaped, the walls a little thickened (Lawton 1971).

Eurhynchium pulchellum var. pulchellum: Stem leaves sometimes reaching 1.3 mm in length and those of the branches to 1.1 mm, not or only a little pleated (FNA 2014).

Eurhynchium pulchellum var. barnesii: Present in Montana (Elliott and Pipp 2016; FNA 2014). Stem and branch leaves mostly longer than in var. pulchellum, sometimes reaching 2.6 mm and 1.9 mm in length respectively, distinctly pleated (FNA 2014).

Eurhynchiastrum species have a terminal spine on the dorsal face of the costa, a characteristic that is absent in Rhynchostegium species (FNA 2014).

Variety pulchellum: Soil, stone, rotting wood and tree bottoms in forests, protected perpendicular stone faces, forested and wet inclines of gulches, exposed soil of dry steppe. Occurring from lowlands to 10,500 feet elevation (FNA 2014).

Variety barnesii: Soil, stone, and rotting logs. Occurring around 1640 feet elevation (FNA 2014).

Pseudomonoicous or dioicous, the stems and rhizoids of large female plants supporting epiphytic dwarf males, or male plants similar to the females and growing intermixed in the same clumps or in separate clumps. Seta russet, mostly smooth, 10-18 mm tall. Capsule 1.5 mm in length (FNA 2014), greatly inclined to level, a little shrunken below the opening (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); peristome allowing capsule mouth to open in low humidity (FNA 2014); endostome light brown; cilia knobby (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981). Calyptra lacking hair (FNA 2014).

Variety pulchellum: Sporophytes, which are rare, are thought to occur only in forest habitats (FNA 2014).