Erect Pohlia Moss

Description

Plants small, green, sometimes red tinged, glossy. Stems0.4-0.8 cm. Leaves erect to - spreading, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 0.7-1.2 mm; margins serrulate to serrate in distal 1/3; costa subpercurrent; distal medial laminal cells rhomboidal, 35-60 -m, walls thin. Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Sexual condition dioicous; perigonial leaves broadly short-ovate; perichaetial leaves weakly differentiated, elongate-lanceolate. Seta orange-brown. Capsule inclined 0-20-, brown to stramineous, narrowly pyriform, neck 1/3 urn length; exothecial cells short-rectangular, walls sinuate; stomata superficial; annulus present; operculum bluntly to acutely conic; exostome teeth yellow to light brown, narrowly triangular; endostome hyaline, basal membrane scarcely exceeding capsule rim, segments , weakly keeled, - perforate, cilia absent. Spores 15-21 -m, finely roughened.Capsules mature summer (Jun-Aug). Soil in mesic alpine and subalpine zones; high elevations; B.C., N.W.T.; Wash.; Europe.Pohlia erecta is a very rare species with soft, sometimes reddish leaves and thin-walled laminal cells. The erect sporophyte has a highly reduced peristome with short, blunt, often irregular exostome teeth, low endostomial basal membrane, and poorly developed to rudimentary segments.