Montana Field Guide

Plants: Pleurocarpous (Vitt 1988), very small, growing in slender, compact mats (Lawton 1971), or frequently as solitary threads amongst other moss species (Vitt 1988), green to ochre (FNA 2014). Stems 5-15 mm in length (Lawton 1971), erratically branched, the branches growing from the stem at an acute angle and easily breaking away from it; hyalodermis lacking; pseudoparaphyllia lacking; rhizoids arising from leaf axils, and those of juveniles, at least, purple and grainy (FNA 2014).

Leaves: Remotely spaced (Lawton 1971), spreading to about 45 degrees, occasionally turned to one side, 0.1 to (rarely) 0.5 mm in length (FNA 2014), cupped (Flowers 1973), not pleated, lance-shaped, narrowing to a flat acumen; base not extending down the stem; leaf edges flat, not bordered (FNA 2014), smooth, or occasionally finely saw-toothed proximally (Lawton 1971); costa absent or short, wide and very faint (Flowers 1973).

Leaf Cells: Upper and medial laminal cells short and somewhat diamond-shaped to softly rectangular, approaching 4:1; marginal cells arranged in 1 layer; alar cells nearly square, the region inconspicuous and consisting of up to 7 cells (FNA 2014).

Stone, soil and humus in moist, protected areas such as fissures of bluffs, beneath stone shelves, or in cavities below tree roots, also on the undersurfaces of rotting wood (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981). Occurring from lowlands to elevations of approximately 6560 feet (Lawton 1971).

Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves frequently saw-toothed to the leaf tip (Lawton 1971) or somewhat ciliate. Seta 6-11 mm tall. Capsule upright or nearly so, the theca sometimes reaching 1 mm in length, shrunken below the opening, including the neck, when dry; stomata present in the short neck; exostome teeth yellowish; cilia of the endostome segments well- to scarcely-developed (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981).

Specialized vegetative reproduction from several-celled propagula borne in the leaf axils (FNA 2014).