astorey_botany's Favorites

lants acrocarpous, autoicous, ca. 6-20 mm tall, frequently branched, brown or brown-olivaceous, brownish-yellow distally, green on new lateral branches; Leaves spirally arranged, appressed when dry, ascending to erect when moist, ovate-lanceolate, occasionally weakly secund, carinate medially to distally, very strongly so distally; Leaf lamina unistratose with from one to five bistratose striae distally, up to three striae immediately juxtaposed; Stem and branch leaves mostly 1.7-2.2 mm long, perichaetial leaves ca. 2.5-3.5 mm long; Leaf margins mostly bistratose for one to four rows of cells, sometimes unistratose or partly tristratose, mostly entire but strongly denticulate near apices, especially those of awned perichaetial leaves, recurved to below apices, but almost to apices on some perichaetial leaves, usually weakly or more broadly so on one side in contrast to the other; Costae sparsely short-papillose on abaxial edges distally, percurrent or shortly excurrent as small awns, particularly at perichaetial leaf apices; Awn, in most well-developed instances (usually on unbroken inner apical leaves of new shoots), hyaline, ca. 70-110 µm long, regularly denticulate or spinulose-denticulate, rigid and basally broadened, very narrowly decurrent with papillae at the base; Laminal cells without papillae, incrassate, rectangular with straight walls and ca. (9-)10-13(-15) µm wide basally, shortly oblong to quadrate with slightly sinuose walls proximally, gradually transitioning from mostly oblong to mostly isodiametric medially, isodiametric distally; Basal marginal laminal cells quadrate, less often short-rectangular, some with thickened or trigonous transverse walls; Calyptra covering only operculum, cucullate; Capsules oblong-cylindrical, ca. 0.8-1.5 mm long, with length: width ratio ca. 2: 1, orange-brown, yellowish-brown if less matured; Exothecial cells mostly oblong, fewer oblate or isodiametric, with walls unevenly thickened, often curved and trigonous; Stomata lacking on capsule surface; Exostome red, patent to squarrose, mostly not much greater than 300-350 µm in height, densely papillose medially to distally, often with perforations in vertical rows; Papillae on inner surfaces of exostome in vertical rows; Spores (9-)10-12(-13) µm in diameter

Plants dioicous, minute, evenly foliate to weakly comose; green or yellowish-green in color with reddish-orange stems; Leaves ovate-lanceolate, plane or weakly concave; Costae short-excurrent on distal leaves, subpercurrent on proximal leaves; Medial laminal cells ca. (35-)40-60(-65) µm long; Limbidium absent or weak; Rhizoids purple, not papillose; Tubers common on long rhizoids, close to base of stem and distributed along length of rhizoids, spherical or subspherical, brownish- or orangish-red, surficial cells not protuberant, ca. 65-90(-95) µm in the longest dimension.

over soil on exposed conglomerate outcrop
Syntrichia montana complex
small plants: leaves ~2mm; 1-stratose;
margins revolute in proximal half; costa excurrent in short, serrate, hyaline awn; costa w hydroids