Montana Field Guide

Plants: Acrocarpous (FNA 2014), growing in crowded clumps of upright shoots (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), green or sometimes green with yellow tones, shiny. Stems 8-35 mm tall (FNA 2014), russet, unbranched, covered with intertwining rhizoids proximally (Lawton 1971).

Leaves: Loosely upright, overlapping, or a little curved and twisted when dry, upright to spreading about 45 degrees or more when damp (FNA 2014), smaller and distant proximally, becoming larger and more densely-spaced above (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981), lance-shaped and long (FNA 2014), narrowing to the acuminate leaf tip, the tip frequently twisted; leaf edges flat or slightly curved back and downward (Lawton 1971), in the apical region the leaf edges saw-toothed or finely so; costa reaching or nearly reaching the leaf tip (FNA 2014), occasionally toothed on the dorsal surface near the apex (Lawton 1971), not red proximally (Crum and Anderson et al, 1981).

Leaf Cells: Upper medial laminal cells long and thin, wavy and worm-like, with fine walls (FNA 2014).

Fruit ripens in spring through the middle of summer (FNA 2014).

Pohlia elongata also has long-necked capsules and an endostome similar to that of P. longicolla. However, P. elongata plants are dull rather than shiny and have laminal cells diamond-shaped to 6-sided rather than long and worm-like (FNA 2014).

On soil somewhat rich in organic matter, found on embankments along trails and watercourses (FNA 2014); montane (Lawton 1971).

Monoicous (FNA 2014), with antheridia in twos in the axils of upper leaves (Lawton 1971), near the archegonia but not mingling. Sporophytes common (FNA 2014). Seta 10-30 mm tall (Lawton 1971), solitary, somewhat straw-colored or brown tinged with orange. Capsule carried well-beyond the perichaetial bracts, long and narrow (FNA 2014), the theca counting the neck 3-5.5 mm in length (Lawton 1971), straw-colored, inclined slightly to horizontal; neck long and distinct (FNA 2014), but typically not as long as the rest of the capsule (Lawton 1971); stomata occurring on the capsule’s surface (FNA 2014) in the neck region, numerous (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); exostome teeth deltoid, pitted below (FNA 2014), papillose (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981); endostome processes with slender openings or none, and cilia scarcely developed or lacking (FNA 2014), knobby, in 2s or occasionally 4s (Crum and Anderson et al. 1981).