Flora of North America species comparison

(2–)5–10(–70) cm, stiffly erect to decumbent, mostly simple or rarely forked, bracteate proximally, densely to rather distantly leafy.

loosely to densely leafy distally, bracteate proximally, rhizoidous at base or rarely wooly-tomentose throughout.

6–8(–12) mm, erect or erect-spreading when dry, flexuose, with distinctly recurved tips, spreading to broadly recurved when moist, or the blade sharply squarrose-reflexed from the base;

sheath oblong to elliptic, involute-tubular and clasping the stem, often golden yellow and highly nitid, abruptly contracted to the narrowly lanceolate blade;

marginal lamina plane or erect, narrow, 2–3(–7) cells wide, toothed from the base of blade to the apex, the teeth unicellular, embedded in the margin;

costa toothed abaxially near the apex, excurrent, ending in short, rough awn;

lamellae crenulate in profile, 5–9 cells high, the margin distinctly grooved as seen from above, with 2 rows of paired, projecting knobs, the marginal cells in section narrow or more typically enlarged and wider than those beneath, retuse to deeply notched (rarely divided by a vertical partition), ± thick-walled and brownish, smooth;

sheath cells 60–90 × 10–13 µm, elongate-rectangular to linear (as much as 20:1), narrower toward the margins;

cells of the marginal lamina 10–15 µm wide, subquadrate.

with differentiated sheath and blade;

sheath entire, hyaline-margined, often highly nitid (glossy), with a well-developed hinge-tissue at the junction of sheath and blade;

marginal lamina narrow, plane or erect, sharply toothed with stout, unicellular teeth, or entire, broadened and ± sharply inflexed, enclosing the lamellae;

costa short-excurrent or prolonged as a long, spinulose awn;

lamellae numerous, closely-spaced, the marginal cells in section distinctly differentiated, pyriform, flat-topped, or retuse, smooth.

5–9 cm, stout, yellowish to reddish brown.

solitary.

dioicous;

perichaetial leaves with a long, scarious-margined sheath and blade greatly reduced, gradually narrowed to a finely acuminate tip, the margins toothed, denticulate to subentire, the costa short- to long-excurrent, roughened to almost smooth.

dioicous;

male plants with conspicuous rosettes formed by the broadly overlapping, apiculate perigonial bracts, commonly innovating and producing several successive male inflorescences per shoot;

perichaetial leaves typically long-sheathing, the sheath broadly hyaline-margined, with a weakly-developed and greatly abbreviated blade.

3–6 mm, short-rectangular to cubic, brown to dark reddish brown, glaucous when fresh, sharply 4-alate, inclined to horizontal;

peristome 250 µm, divided to 0.6, the teeth 64, pale.

4(–5)-angled, often somewhat broader toward the base, alate and prismatic with knife-edge angles after the operculum is shed, reddish to purplish brown, glaucous in fresh capsules, suberect when young but becoming sharply bent at the attachment to the seta and almost horizontal;

hypophysis discoid, sharply delimited from the urn by a deep basal constriction;

stomata rather few and confined to the constriction;

exothecial cells bulging-mammillose, often transversely elongate, with a sharply defined, circular or slit-like pit in the outer wall;

operculum umbonate, with a short beak;

peristome teeth 64, pale, single, with a thin vertical keel and delicate spur-like projections in the inner face;

epiphragm thin and delicate, remaining attached to the peristome teeth, the margin thicker and dissected into pendent lobes alternating with the peristome teeth.

golden yellow to brownish, completely enveloping the capsule.

with a densely interwoven, matted felt of hairs, enveloping the whole capsule and entwined beneath.

5–8(–12) µm.

small, smooth (minutely echinulate with SEM).