Crisped Pincushion

Ulota crispa (Hedw.) Brid. Muse. Recent. Suppl. 4: 112. 1819
Orthotrichum crispum Hedw. Sp. Muse. 162. 1801.
Ulota camptopoda Kindb. in Macoun, Cat. Can. PI. 6: 85. 1892.
Ulota crispa var. subcalvescens Card. & Th6r. Proc. Wash. Acad. 4: 310. 1902.
Ulota crispula Brid. Bryol. Univ. 1: 793. 1827.
Ulota crispa var. crispula Hammar, Monogr. Orthotr. Ulot. Suec. 24. 1852.
Plants in small, dense tufts, yellowish-green above, brown below; stems 5—10 mm. long, sparingly branched; leaves strongly crisped when dry, about 2-3 mm. long, narrowly lanceolate from a broader, concave base, acute to narrowly obtuse, rather strongly papillose above, the margins plane; costa strong, vanishing in the apex; upper leaf-cells subcircular to transversely elliptic, very thick-walled, the lumen 8-10 /z thick; basal cells as described for the genus; seta 1-2 mm. long; capsules obovoid, well exserted, longer than the spore-sac, the neck long, slender, merging insensibly into the seta, together with neck and operculum about 2 mm. long, when dry suburceolate and contracted below the mouth immediately after dehiscence, abruptly contracted to the shrunken and wrinkled neck, 8-ribbed as to the spore-sac, this later shrinking and the entire capsule becoming narrowly subcylindric and deeply plicate; calyptra hairy; exothecial cells differentiated, rectangular along the bands; stomata just below the spore-sac; operculum conic-rostrate; peristome-teeth 16, at first more or less united in pairs, finely papillose and often perforate near the apex, reflexed when dry, 0.2 mm. long; segments 8, of two rows of cells, shorter than the teeth; spores finely papillose, up to 22 p in diameter, maturing from late spring to early summer.
Type locality: Germany.
Distribution: On rough bark of deciduous trees in moist regions; eastern United States and Canada, south to North Carolina and Tennessee, west to Minnesota; Alaska; Europe; Asia; Africa.