No Taxonomic Notes.

   Plant in dense cushions to 15 cm high, often brick red to brown below due to the dense rhizoids, olive green above, rather glossy in younger portions. Stems red, closely foliate, mostly curled distally when dry. Leaves rigidly appressed above often secund in distal portions of stem, not crispate. Margin mostly somewhat recurved at mid-leaf but with the recurvature seldom involving more than the single marginal cell row, entire below but coarsely serrate to serrulate on the subula. Leaves to 3.5 mm long, linear lanceolate 6–10: 1, with a moderately well-defined ovate base contracted about 1/4 up leaf to the stiff subula, lightly plicate below. Cells mostly smooth but usually with scattered cells near the apex low prorate, mostly with rather prominent white, somewhat thickened walls. Median laminal cells of subula smooth to lightly prorate, moderately thick walled with elliptical lumens, to 10 µm broad, mostly less than 2: 1. Marginal cells of subula somewhat longer and more narrow than adjacent median cells. Cells of leaf base predominantly isodiametric but usually with at least a few more elongate cells and with the red-brown immediate basal cells mostly 1.5–4: 1. Alar cells not strongly differentiated, isodiametric or sometimes shortly transversely elongate. Macronematal initials to 80 µm broad, 4–8: 1, extending from median base of leaf down nearly to insertion of next leaf. Costa filling about 1/8 of leaf base, little tapering above, filling about 1/3 of subula base and excurrent in distal 1/4–1/5 of leaf, usually with a few abaxial teeth near apex. Lamina bistratose in patches or throughout most of subula, bistratose throughout subula at margin. Costa cross section with one or two layers of guide cells, with two strong layers of substereids but without a differentiated epidermis. Stem cross section rounded pentagonal, with outer 2–3 layers of very small, red-brown and pachydermous cells, fluted outside, rather abruptly differentiated from the pale, thin- to moderately thick-walled inner cortical cells, with a central strand. Rhizoids red-brown, densely papillose, extensively but irregularly branched, to 15 µm wide at base. Axillary hairs to 25 µm long with 1–2 basal brown cells and an almost spherical vesicular apical cell.

   Dioicous with terminal perigonia. Perichaetia terminal but appearing lateral by single innovations; bracts mostly similar to vegetative leaves. Seta mostly to 10 mm long, straight and smooth, yellow brown. Urn erect, to 1.5 mm long, globose to oblong with mouth less than half the diameter of the urn, red-brown to brown, wrinkled when dry but not regularly sulcate. Operculum short-apiculate. Neck of dry capsule well-defined, forming a ring below the urn. Suboral exothecial cells transversely elongate in 2–5 rows, 0.3–0.5: 1, to 15 µm broad. Median exothecial cells to 50 µm broad, hexagonal and isodiametric, with angular lumens and walls to 5 µm thick. Stomata restricted to neck. Annulus poorly defined. Exostome inconspicuous, inserted far below mouth of capsule and hardly protruding from mouth, to 150 µm, smooth and consisting of only a few fragile articulations. Endostome absent. Spores elliptic to reniform, warty papillose, 25–30 µm broad.

   Plant to 15 cm high in dense cushions, brick red to brown below due to the dense rhizoids, olive green above, rather glossy in younger portions. Leaves appressed above or with the apices somewhat divergent to curled, often falcate-secund in distal portions of stem, not crispate. Margin recurved from the extreme base to the subula, entire below but coarsely serrate to irregularly serrulate on the subula. Leaves to 3.5 mm long, narrowly lanceolate 4–6: 1, with a moderately well-defined ovate base contracted about 1/4 up leaf to the stiff subula, lightly plicate below. Cells throughout smooth or very low prorate on scattered cells, mostly with rather prominent white, somewhat thickened walls. Median cells of subula smooth to lightly prorate, moderately thick walled with elliptical lumens, to 10 µm broad, mostly less than 2: 1. Marginal cells of subula somewhat longer and more narrow than adjacent median cells. Cells of leaf base predominantly isodiametric but usually with at least a few more elongate cells and with the immediate basal cells mostly 1.5–4: 1. Alar cells not strongly differentiated, isodiametric to shortly transversely elongate. Macronematal initials to 180 µm broad, extending from median base of leaf down nearly to insertion of next leaf. Costa filling about 1/5 of leaf base, little tapering above, filling about 1/3 of subula base and excurrent in distal 1/5–1/8 of leaf. Lamina bistratose in patches or throughout most of subula, bistratose throughout subula at margin. Costa cross section with one or two layers of guide cells, with two strong layers of substereids but without a differentiated epidermis. Stem cross section rounded pentagonal, with outer 2–3 layers of very small, red-brown and pachydermous cells, fluted outside, ratgher abruptly differentiated from the pale, thin- to moderately thick-walled inner cortical cells, with a central strand. Rhizoids red-brown, densely papillose, extensively but irregularly branched, to 15 µm wide at base. Axillary hairs to 25 µm long with two basal brown cells and an almost spherical vesicular apical cell.

   Dioicous with terminal perigonia. Perichaetia terminal but appearing lateral by single innovation, bracts mostly similar to vegetative leaves. Seta mostly to 10 mm long, straight and smooth,yellow brown. Urn globose to very short cylindric with mouth less than half the diameter of the urn, to 1.5 mm long, red-brown to brown, wrinkled when dry but not regularly sulcate. Exothecial cells to 50 µm broad, hexagonal and isodiametric, with walls to 5 µm thick. Spores densely papillose 25–30 µm broad. Peristome abortive and broken, often difficult to demonstrate. Axillary hairs and macronematal initials identical in A. laevisphaera. Costa often cristate dorsally in A. l.

   This plant has a very broad ecological amplitude. In the perhumid areas of northwestern California it is one of the most characteristic plants of intermittently moist rock faces, and it seems there to be almost an obligate petrophyte. On drier sites to the south and east in the state it is a plant of drier soils, especially in chapparal and adjacent semi-desert habitats. Compared with its more humid sites, this latter dry site plant is darker and less glossy; it has fewer rhizoids; the leaf base is more defined relative to the subula; and the upper cells of the subula are shorter, more frequently quadrate. I have repeatedly studies these variants but find no justification for recognition at any taxonomic level.

Vouchers: Fresno Co.: Highway 180 at Horseshoe Bend above the Kings River, Sequoia National Forest, Shevock & York 12324a; Los Angeles Co.: slopes of Orizaba Mountain, Santa Catalina Island, Shevock & Thorne 4033; Riverside Co.: between Key Ranch and Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park, Norris 50538; San Francisco Co.: Castro and 30th Streets, San Francisco, Toren 8020 (CAS); Siskiyou Co.: Salmon River at Nordheimer Creek, Klamath National Forest, Norris & Hermann 22768; Tuolumne Co.: slopes of Pilot Ridge, South Fork Tuolumne River, Stanislaus National Forest, Shevock & Haas 13427.

Literature: Bourell 1981; Flowers 1973; Harpel 1980a; Harthill et al. 1979; Holmberg 1969; Kellman 2003; Kingman 1912; Koch 1950a, 1951e; Koch and Ikenberry 1954; Lawton 1971; Long 1978; Mishler 1978; Sayre 1940; Shevock and Toren 2001; Showers 1982; Sigal 1975; Spjut 1971; Steere 1954; Steere et al. 1954; Strid 1974; Toren 1977; Whittemore and Sommers 1999, Yurky 1990, 1995. As Anacolia aristifolia Cooke 1941. As Bartramia menziesii Bradshaw 1926; Lesquereux 1868; Watson 1880.

Illustration References: Malcolm et al. 2009 p. 194; Flowers 1973; Lawton 1971; Sharp et al. 1994.

Elevation by latitude plot for Anacolia menziesii
   in California