Hypnum cupressiforme

   Plants in tightly prostrate mats, green to olive green, irregularly or pinnately densely branched with leafy axes similar wet or dry, to 3 cm long. Leaves to 2 mm, 3–4: 1, falcate secund to circinate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, gradually contracted from the rounded base to the long and filiform acumen. Margins plane, narrowly decurrent, serrulate above the middle, often serrate near apex. Median cells smooth, 4–7 µm wide, linear, up to 20: 1, rather thin walled, not pitted. Two or three cells of extreme alar region inflated and isodiametric, to 15 µm wide, accompanied by several quadrate but not inflated supra-alar cells with moderately thick but unpitted walls. Costa short and double. Pseudoparaphyllia deltoid to orbicular, strongly overarching the bud. Axillary hairs 5-celled, to 250 µm with a very long basal brown cell, not offset from leaf insertion. Stem cross-section without either a central strand or a hyaloderm and with the outer cortical cells small and brownish, thick-walled, and with inner cortical cells only gradually demarcated from those outer cells.

   Dioicous with male plants similar to females. Perichaetia in leaf axils, with the leaves erect and partially sheathing the seta, to 5 mm long. Seta to 2 cm long, erect, pale yellow to yellow, geniculate distally. Capsule light brown, inclined to horizontal, arcuate, often strongly so, neither sulcate nor strangulate. Urn to 1.5 mm, about 3–4: 1. Exothecial cells near mouth of capsule isodiametric with thick walls and rounded lumens, to 15 µm wide. Exothecial cells at mid urn short rectangular, 1.5–3: 1, in regular rows, not collenchymatous, to 22 µm broad. Stomata phaneroporous, restricted to neck. Annulus present, not revoluble. Operculum conic, much shorter than urn. Exostome to 300 µm long, horizontally striate below, papillose above, light-brown. Endostome segments smooth to lightly papillose, perforate, about as long as exostome with basal membrane about 1/2 of total length. Cilia 2–3, nodose. Spores lightly papillose, to 20 µm.

No Vouchers.

Literature: Koch 1950a; Yurky 1995.

No Distribution in California.

Illustration References: Lawton 1971.

Elevation by latitude plot for Hypnum cupressiforme
   in California