Dicranoweisia cirrata

   Plants in low and rather dense, lustreless to somewhat glossy green to yellow green turfs, to 20 mm high. Leaves not at all falcate secund, erect spreading when moist, crispate when dry, subtubular inrolled on subula. Larger stem leaves lanceolate to oblong- or linear-lancolate, to 3.5 mm long, 8–10: 1, with the base poorly defined and only obscurely sheathing. Juxtacostal cells of limb to 6 µm wide, mostly isodiametric with somewhat rounded lumens, with bistratose patches or streaks. Median leaf cells of sheathing base rectangular in regular rows, smooth below or throughout, to 6 µm wide and about 8: 1 near costa but gradually shorter and broader toward margin. Marginal cells of leaf base more narrow but not otherwise differentiated. Alar cells thin walled, moderately to not at all demarcated, not extending to costa, quadrate and brownish, to 15 µm wide, not inflated. Costa well defined from base to the percurrent, subpercurrent or short excurrent apex but with the lamina several cells wide very near the leaf apex. Costa cross-section with dorsal and ventral stereids, a single layer of guide cells and with both epidermises well defined. Margin recurved at least near mid-leaf, entire throughout or remotely serrulate near apex, bistratose in part or throughout. Rhizoids pale to red-brown, to 25 µm wide at base, smooth, abundant in lower portion of plant or sparsely produced only near the base, sparingly monopodial branched. Stem cross-section with a poorly defined central strand, with the inner corticals hyaline and leptodermous, and with only 1–2 layers of red brown, small and pachydermous outer cortical cells.

   Autoicous with perigonia in the axils of leaves close to the perichaetia. Perichaetial leaves to 3 mm long, usually convolute and abruptly narrowed to a truncate apex and a short awn, occasionally sheathing the base of the seta and similar to the adjacent vegetative leaves. Monosetous with the seta to 15 mm, yellow to brownish, straight and smooth. Urn brownish, erect and cylindrical, 2–3: 1, wrinkled when dry but not sulcate, to 1.5 mm long, not strumose. Operculum bluntly rostrate, about 2/3 as long as the urn, with quadrate cells on flaring base but with abrupt differentiation of much elongated cells on beak. Exothecial cells to 30 µm wide, rectangular in regular rows, thin walled, to 3: 1. Exothecial cells near mouth of capsule differentiated in 2–4 rows, mostly less than twice as wide as high. Annulus in several rows, persistent. Stomata few on base of urn. Peristome erect when dry, light brown to red brown, inserted below capsule mouth, to 150 µm long, lanceolate and entire or distally somewhat eroded, smooth below but high papillose distally. Spores spherical, smooth to minutely papillose, to 18 µm.

   Cells more consistently isodiametric, leaves much less differentiated into base and limb. Basal cells rather thin walled with virtually no alar differentiation.

Vouchers: Lake Co.: Clear Lake State Park, Norris 47731; Plumas Co.: forest campsite along Highway 24 and North Fork Feather River, Koch 1873 (UC): Riverside Co.: Riverside County Park near Idyllwild, San Jacinto Mountains, Harpel 1465 (pers. herb.); San Francisco Co.: Mt. Sutro, Shevock 19180; Santa Barbara Co.: Orcutt Hill, Bratt s.n. (SBBG); Santa Cruz Co.: Zayante Canyon Road about 4 miles south of Summit Road north of Felton, Santa Cruz Mountains, Norris 86868; Siskiyou Co.: Soda Creek Road about 4 miles northeast of Highway 5 near Dunsmuir, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Norris 84791; Tulare Co.: County Road M-220 at Bear Creek, Sequoia National Forest, Norris, Shevock, & Barahona 87651.

Literature: Bourell 1981; Harpel 1980a; Harthill et al. 1979; Holmberg 1969; Jamieson 1969; Kellman 2003; Kingman 1912; Koch 1950a, 1951e; Koch and Ikenberry 1954; Lawton 1971; Lesquereux and James 1884; Long 1978; Mishler 1978; Moxley 1928; Shevock and Toren 2001; Showers 1982; Sigal 1975; Smith 1970; Spjut 1971; Steere et al. 1954; Toren 1977; Yurky 1990, 1995. As Weissia cirrata Lesquereux 1868; Sullivant 1856; Watson 1880.

Illustration References: Malcolm et al. 2009 p. 102; Flowers 1956; Lawton 1971; Sharp et al. 1994; Smith 1978.

Elevation by latitude plot for Dicranoweisia cirrata
   in California