Syntrichia fragilis (Taylor) Ochyra

Stems (5-)10-25 mm. Leaves crowded, longitudinally folded and spirally twisted around the stem (but little crisped) when dry, wide-spreading when moist, oblong-lingulate to spatulate, 2-3.5 × 0.75-1 mm, fragile, with sheets of cells breaking off, sometimes along lines of weakness; margins revolute before to as much as 1/2 the leaf length, to plane, entire or crenulate; apices truncate to acute; costa percurrent or slightly excurrent as a mucro 1-3(-5) cells long, yellow or red, finely to strongly papillose abaxially, abruptly tapered; basal cells abruptly differentiated, becoming rather abruptly short-rectangular near the margins; distal cells quadrate-hexagonal, 9-15 µm, bulging, with 3-8 papillae per cell, with moderately thick walls, not particularly collenchymatous; distal marginal cells not or weakly to strongly differentiated as a border of brownish, thicker-walled cells in about 2-3 rows. Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Sexual condition dioicous. Seta red, 10-15 mm. Capsule red, (1.5-)2-4 mm, slightly curved, rather gradually tapered to the seta or with a distinct neck; operculum 1-1.5 mm, red; peristome 1-1.5 mm, teeth twisted about 1/2 turn, the distal divisions yellow, the basal membrane pale, about 1/4 the total length. Spores 13-20 µm, densely papillose.