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.

1–3(–6) cm, simple, erect or decumbent, the cortical cells thin- or thick-walled.

(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.

3–6 mm, loosely to densely imbricate, erect-incurved at the tips and appressed to the stem when dry, erect-spreading when moist, obtusely cucullate, often secund;

sheath broadly elliptic, hyaline-margined, gradually tapering or abruptly contracted to the blade;

blade lanceolate to ligulate, almost tubular when dry;

costa percurrent or slightly excurrent, cucullate at the apex, rarely bluntly mucronate;

marginal lamina 2–6 cells wide, entire to obscurely denticulate, slightly broader and inflexed in the distal part of blade, covering the lamellae;

lamellae 5–8(–11) cells high, minutely crenulate in profile, the marginal cells in section larger than those beneath, narrowly ovate to pyriform, smooth or very rarely indistinctly papillose;

median sheath cells elongate-rectangular, (18–)24–40 × 8–10(–18) µm;

cells of marginal lamina 11–15 µm, quadrate to short rectangular, ± equally thick-walled;

perichaetial leaves slightly longer than the foliage leaves.

(1–)3–5 cm, brownish.

1.5–3 cm, rather stout, straight or arcuate with age.

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.

2–3 mm, short-cylindric to ovoid to globose, bluntly (4–)5–6-angled to terete, erect to horizontal to nodding;

hypophysis small, scarcely delimited, stomata large and scattered on the proximal 1/3 of the urn;

exothecium smooth, the cells variable in shape, trigonal to hexagonal, with a diffuse thin spot;

peristome pale 220–300 µm high, divided to 0.3–0.5, the teeth 50–64, slender, of uniform size, or short triangular, the alternate teeth smaller.

14–20 µm.

16–18 µm.