Flora of North America species comparison

(1–)4–5(–10) cm, simple, brownish tomentose only near the base.

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

3–6(–8) mm, densely imbricate, ± erect and almost straight when dry, erect-spreading to widely spreading when moist;

sheath oblong-rectangular, yellowish, tapering to the blade;

blade slender, bluish green and nitid, rather flat, with sharply infolded margins;

marginal lamina 5–7 cells wide, 1-stratose, entire or minutely crenulate, membranous and transparent, enclosing the lamellae and overlapping towards the apex;

costa usually somewhat toothed distally, excurrent, forming a subulate, toothed awn, the awn reddish brown throughout or slightly decolorate at tip;

lamellae bluntly crenate in profile, 6–8 cells high, the marginal cells in cross-section ovate to pyriform, thick-walled, ending in a distinct knob, smooth or rarely faintly papillose, the marginal cells of lateral lamellae (enclosed by the overlapping margins) ovoid and less strongly thickened;

sheath cells 70–100 × 6–10 µm, narrowly rectangular (4–6:1), narrower toward the margin;

cells of the broad marginal lamina transversely elongate, very thick-walled.

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.

(1–)3–5 cm, stout, yellowish to reddish brown.

solitary.

dioicous;

perigonial rosettes yellowish to reddish green;

perichaetial leaves longer than the foliage leaves, long-sheathing, the blade almost obsolete, ending in a slender yellowish or hyaline awn.

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.

2.5–5 mm, rectangular, longer than wide (1.5–2:1), reddish brown to dark brown, glaucous when fresh, suberect, becoming horizontal when mature, sharply 4-angled and prismatic;

peristome 200–240 µm, divided to 0.6–0.8, the teeth 64, keeled at back.

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.

whitish to light brown, covering the capsule.

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

6–10(–12) µm.

small, smooth (minutely echinulate with SEM).