Tortured Tortella Moss

Plants medium-sized to rather large, 1–4(–5) cm high, green to yellowish green, in dense tufts. Stems erect, usually branched. Leaves often crowded, contorted-curved when dry, flexuous-spreading when moist, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, often channeled above, slenderly acute, somewhat sheathing at base; margins plane or somewhat undulate or narrowly incurved, entire to crenulate with projecting papillae; costa more or less excurrent, sometimes ending in a short awn; upper leaf cells quadrate to hexagonal, unistratose, pluripapillose, with simple papillae; basal cells often sharply differentiated, rectangular, smooth, forming a V-shaped base. Dioicous. Sporophytes not seen.

Plants dull, green, yellow-green or yellow-brown distally, brown proximally, becoming reddish at higher latitudes and altitudes, elongate. Stems 1-6 cm, leaves distantly disposed along the stem with the shining leaf bases usually apparent, central strand nearly always absent, rarely present, sclerodermis moderately developed, 2-3(-4) cells deep, cells of the central cylinder rather thick-walled, stems visibly tomentose with dense red-brown radicles, rarely nearly eradiculose in very small stems. Stem leaves rather soft, uniform in size, strongly crisped or contorted with spirally curled tips when dry, flexuose- to widespreading when moist, long-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, broadly to narrowly concave or nearly plane proximally to more or less keeled in the apical region, (2-)3-6.5(-7) mm; base somewhat broader than limb, oblong; margins usually shortly and strongly undulate, evenly crenulate-papillose, gradually subulate-acuminate, apex acumination confluent with the mucro, leaves at the extreme stem apex surmounted by a stout, multicellular mucro; costa excurrent as a long, smooth or denticulate mucro or short awn, usually composed of 5-10 rhomboidal cells, adaxial cells of the costa variable, costa distal to the leaf base to the distal median region covered by an epidermis of quadrate to short-rectangular (2:1) papillose cells, in the distal adaxial region variously with a narrow or broader central groove of exposed, smooth, elongate (8:1) stereid cells, occasionally the groove conspicuous and extensive; proximal laminal cells abruptly differentiated from distal cells, hyaline, laxly thin-walled; distal laminal cells 1-stratose, quadrate, 7-10(-13) µm wide, marginal cells undifferentiated. Specialized asexual reproduction none except possibly through fragility of the lamina in some populations, or weakness toward the apex. Sexual condition dioicous, but seldom fruiting; perigoniate plants rare; perigonia apparently few per stem, inner perigonial bracts ovate and abruptly apiculate, scarcely longer than the antheridia, 0.5 mm; perichaetiate plants common; perichaetia numerous on the stem; perichaetial leaves differentiated even in unfertilized perichaetia, slender and erect at the base, long, 5-5.5 mm, somewhat sheathing, distal part, consisting mostly of costa, setaceous-subulate, erect, in fertile plants, stiff and slightly flexuose, distinct and conspicuous above the tightly crisped cauline leaves when dry. Seta 0.9-2.7(-3.5) cm. Capsule 1.5-3.3 mm; annulus not vesiculose; operculum 1.5-2 mm; peristome teeth long and spirally wound 2 or 3 times, 1.1-1.4 mm.

Distribution: China, Japan, Nepal, India, Russia, Europe, northern Africa, North and South America.

Habitat: on wet rocks or thin soil over rocks; also on alpine bogs or on tree trunks.

Barbula subtortuosa C. Müll., Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n. ser. 3: 100. 1896. Type. China: Shaanxi (Schen-si), Thae-pei-san, 1894, P. J. Giraldi 848 (isotype H).

Tortula tortuosa Hedwig, Sp. Musc. Frond., 124. 1801