Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous. Growing in short, crowded clumps of erect shoots, green (FNA 2007) or green with yellow tones (Smith 1980), not glossy. Stems simple, 1-4 cm tall; rhizoids few near the top of the stem (FNA 2007).

Leaves: Typically strongly curved and pointed to one side (FNA 2007), scarcely changed when dry (Smith 1980), 2-4 mm in length lance-shaped, narrowing steadily to a subula (FNA 2007), the subula channeled (Smith 1980); margins upright, smooth, finely saw-toothed (FNA 2007) or smooth apically; costa excurrent, the protruding awn scruffy with papillae (Lawton 1971).

Leaf Cells: Margins 1 cell-layer thick above; alar cells frequently brown, moderately swollen (Lawton 1971), not sharply modified (Smith 1980); lower laminal cells somewhat long, smooth, occasionally pitted; upper laminal cells quadrangular, sometimes nearly square, a little papillose; costa with stereid cells scarcely differing from the guide cells (FNA 2007).

Unlike K. blyttii, K. falcata has falcate leaves. K. starkei differs from them both with its distinctly grooved capsules when dry and habitat of perpendicular rather than level rock (FNA 2007).

Moist (Elliott and Pipp 2016), gritty soil, noncalcareous stone, and frequently in areas of lingering snow on level stone substrates; high elevations (FNA 2007).

Autoicous, the stalkless perigonia usually situated immediately beneath the perichaetia, or sometimes further away (FNA 2007). Seta 5-10 mm tall. Capsule typically bowed with a swollen area at the base (Lawton 1971), not distinctly grooved when dry; theca 0.8-1.2 mm in length (FNA 2007); operculum beak slanted (Lawton 1971); peristome with 16 2-lobed teeth, the lobes reaching to mid-tooth, russet, with papillae or longitudinal grooves or pores. Calyptra like a draping hood (FNA 2007).