Flora of North America species comparison

(1–)4–6(–14) cm, densely leafy above, often leafless and thread-like below, simple or sparingly to fasciculately branched.

simple to sparingly (or fasciculately) branched, arising from a short underground rhizome.

(4–)5–8(–19) mm, loosely to densely imbricate, erect-spreading and subtubulose when dry, erect-spreading to widely spreading when moist;

sheath ± nitid, elliptic to obovate, with tapering shoulders (in var. fragile contracted above the sheath and the blade caducous), broadly hyaline-margined;

blade linear-lanceolate, the apex narrowly acute to finely acuminate;

marginal lamina 2–5 cells wide, erect, coarsely serrate with multicellular teeth, distantly serrulate to subentire;

costa excurrent, ending in a short, brownish, toothed awn;

lamellae 5–8 cells high, entire in profile, the marginal cells with the free wall appearing greatly thickened, the marginal cells in section enlarged, yellowish to dark brown, ovate to narrowly ovate, the lateral walls strongly thickened, the lumen narrowly pentagonal and pointed at the apex, coarsely papillose;

median cells of sheath 40–60(–80) × 6–12 µm, elongate-rectangular, thin-walled;

cells of the marginal lamina 10–15 µm, subquadrate, sometimes transversely elongate;

perichaetial leaves scarcely longer than the stem leaves.

with ± differentiated sheathing base and divergent blade;

sheath entire, hyaline-margined, often nitid, ± abruptly contracted to the blade, the shoulders with well-developed hinge tissue;

marginal lamina sharply toothed to entire;

costa typically short-excurrent or (in perichaetial leaves) prolonged into a toothed awn, rarely the apex cucullate;

lamellae numerous, closely spaced, occupying most of the distal surface of the blade, the margins ± entire, finely serrulate or crenulate in profile, smooth or coarsely papillose, the marginal cells in section undifferentiated or sharply distinct.

(1–)3–5 cm, brownish.

solitary.

dioicous or polygamous.

various, (1.5–)3–5(–8) mm, terete, narrowly cylindric to oblong-cylindric and curved, ovate-cylindric, or ovoid to almost spherical, suberect to inclined to almost horizontal;

hypophysis tapering, rugose, with numerous conspicuous stomata in a broad basal band;

exothecial cells irregularly rectangular, not bulging or mammillose, thin spots absent, rather thick-walled;

peristome 600 µm (teeth 150–250 µm), divided to 0.6–0.75, the teeth 45–50, with some teeth irregularly developed and unequal, pale to somewhat darker in the median line.

terete or more commonly 4–6-angled, the hypophysis tapering or distinct and cylindric but not sharply delimited;

exothecium smooth, the cells not bulging or papillose, not pitted, sometimes with a diffuse thin spot on the outer wall;

stomata numerous;

operculum rostrate with a distinct beak;

peristome not deeply pigmented, the teeth regularly 64, or somewhat fewer and irregular with some teeth compound, not keeled at back;

epiphragm with erect tooth-like processes opposite the peristome teeth and loosely attached to their inner face.

cucullate, hidden by an interwoven mat of hairs covering the distal portion of capsule.

14–20 µm.

finely papillose.