Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Orthothecium intricatum

fine-leaf bristle moss, fine-leaf leskea, intricate orthothecium moss
Habit Plants small, in mats or tufts, green to yellow-green.
Stems

4 cm, 0.2–0.3 mm wide, curved-ascending, sometimes creeping, irregularly branched.
Leaves

erect to erect-spreading, homomallous, narrowly lanceolate, not or faintly striolate, 1–1.8 mm;

margins plane to somewhat revolute, entire or somewhat sinuate;

apex gradually subulate; ecostate or costa double, very short;

basal laminal cells shorter, broader than medial cells, yellow;

medial cells elongate, linear, 45–75 × 4–6 µm. Specialized asexual reproduction rare, by propagula in leaf axils, short, filamentous.
Seta

red-brown.
Capsule

symmetric, 1.5–2 mm.
Spores

10–14 µm.

Orthothecium intricatum
Habitat Moist shaded calcareous soil, granite, schist, limestone, rock ledges, vertical cliff faces, tundra
Elevation moderate elevations (200-1500 m) (moderate elevations (700-4900 ft))
Distribution
from FNA
AK; BC; NT; NU; QC; YT; Greenland; n Europe; Asia (China, Japan)
Discussion

Orthothecium intricatum is distinguished by leaves that are homomallous and narrowly lanceolate, with plane to slightly revolute margins. The stems are yellow-brown; the leaves are occasionally twisted-flexuose when dry; and the setae are 1.5–2 cm. Sporophytes are rare, and a station in Ontario is doubtful.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 28, p. 556.
Parent taxa Hypnaceae > Orthothecium
Sibling taxa
O. acuminatum, O. chryseum, O. rufescens, O. strictum
Synonyms Leskea intricata
Name authority (Hartman) Schimper: in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper, Bryol. Europ. 5: 108. (1851)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers