Flora of North America species comparison

As emphasized by L. Hedenäs (1990), Calliergonella cuspidata shares with Hypnum lindbergii features such as similar appendiculate endostome cilia, not or slightly denticulate stem and perichaetial leaves, hyaline alar cells in a well-defined group, broad and obtuse pseudoparaphyllia, and a plicate capsule wall when dry; both species group together in molecular phylogenies (M. S. Ignatov et al. 2006; H. Tsubota et al. 2002; A. Vanderpoorten et al. 2002). Plants of C. cuspidata are highly variable, like many wetland mosses. The typical semierect, pinnate habit is developed where the water table is high, while decumbent, irregularly branched habits are found in wetlands where the water table fluctuates. Oddly, plants of mesic lawns are often semierect and pinnate.

Calliergonella cuspidata occurs widely in the Northern and Southern hemispheres; in the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest and California and in the Northeast, the species is established commonly on managed residential lawns and in those of cemeteries. In these regions its native habitat and range are not entirely clear. The species is naturalized in Jamaica in plantations. Sporophytes are rare, even when male and female plants grow together, as in northern Michigan.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)