Cynodontium alpestre (Wahlenberg) Milde

The description of Cynodontium alpestre above follows authors who did not consider the species to be a variant of C. tenellum. Authors who do unite the two (as C. alpestre) conflate the characters, emphasizing those of C. tenellum. The present description and that of, for example, H. A. Crum and L. E. Anderson (1981) for C. alpestre would not be parallel and would be misleading. Cynodontium tenellum as C. alpestre, for example, would have strongly 2- to multistratose margins and sessile perigonial buds, and the cells would be smooth on the lamina; all these features are contradicted by the present description. The distribution in the flora area is poorly known for the United States because of confusion with C. tenellum, and here follows W. C. Steere (1978) and R. R. Ireland et al. (1987). See G. S. Mogensen (1980) for clarification of the taxonomic position of Cynodontium alpestre.

Stems to 1.5 cm. Leaves to 1.5 mm, broadly lanceolate, nearly all leaves with bluntly rounded apices; leaf margins recurved proximally, the cells mostly 1-stratose; cells of distal lamina (6-)8-9 µm wide, with moderately developed or high mammillae and 1(-2) papillae per cell, walls rather thin, angular to somewhat rounded. Perigonium short-stalked. Seta ca. 0.6 cm, straight wet or dry. Capsule symmetrical, erect, not strumose; annulus weakly developed, adherent.

Plants small, 1–3(–4) cm high, dark green to yellowish brown or brown, in dense tufts. Stems erect, simple or branched, radiculose below. Leaves 1–3 mm long, crispate when dry, narrowly lanceolate, gradually acuminate from a narrow base, acute or blunt; margins slightly recurved from the middle to the base, bistratose, subentire or serrulate in the upper half; costa subpercurrent, slightly roughened on the back above; upper cells subquadrate, 7–10 µm wide, variously papillose, sometimes almost smooth; lower cells rectangular, smooth, thin-walled; alar cells not differentiated. Autoicous. Perigonia sessile, bracts oblong-ovate, rounded-obtuse at the apex. Setae erect, 5–6 mm long, yellowish; capsules suberect, symmetric, not strumose, oblong-cylindric, 1.0–1.5 mm long, 8-ribbed, somewhat constricted when dry; opercula obliquely long-rostrate; annuli not developed; peristome teeth reddish, divided about halfway down, vertically striate below, papillose above. Spores 17–20 µm in diameter, smooth to finely papillose.

Distribution: China, Russia (Siberia), Europe, and North America.

Habitat: on rocks or soil over rocks.

Dicranum alpestre Wahlenberg, Fl. Lapp., 339, fig. 21. 1812; Cnestrum alpestre (Wahlenberg) Nyholm

Dicranum gracilescens var. alpestre (Wahl.) Hüb., Musc. Germ., p. 255. 1833. Oncophorus alpestris Lindb., Musci Scand., 27. 1879. Cnestrum alpestre (Wahl.) Nyholm, Bot. Not. 1953.

Oncophorus strumulosus (C. Mull. & Kindb.) E. G. Britton
Cynodontium strumulosum C. Mull. & Kindb.; Macoun, Cat. Can. PL 6: 16. 1892.
Autoicous : male flower on a short stalk below the perichaetium, of 3 or 4 ovate-lanceolate or oblong-linear, broadly acute, crenulate, more or less costate leaves up to one third as long as the upper stem-leaves, rarely longer, enclosing 2 or 3 antheridia nearly or quite without paraphyses: plants in dense tufts up to 1.5 cm. high: leaves crispate when dry, the upper about 2 mm. long, nearly linear, with a rounded or broadly acute apex, the margins recurved below, flat and crenulate above and of a single layer of cells; costa mostly vanishing a little below the apex, rough on the back about one half down, in cross-section showing 2 guide-cells, and in the lower part of the costa a more or less distinct stereid-band on the dorsal side with somewhat differentiated outer cells, in the upper part of the costa the stereid-cells nearly wanting; upper cells of the leaf -blade pellucid, rather irregular, scarcely elongate, 8-12 n in diameter, mamillate on both sides, the lower ones rectangular, smooth, without differentiated alar cells; inner perichaetial leaves similar to the stem-leaves: seta brownish, 8 mm. long: capsule about 0.65 mm. long, mostly curved, nodding, sometimes strumose, furrowed when dry and empty; peristome-teeth divided to below the middle into slender forks, papillose above, the outer plates 101
vertically striate, the inner articulations distinct, about 20 fx apart; lid convex with an .oblique beak; annulus none: spores rough, 20-24 fx in diameter.
Type locality : Hector, in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia Distribution: Known only from the type locality. Bxsicc: Macoun, Can. Musci 518.