Fissidens grandifrons Bridel 1806

Fissidens grandifrons Brid. Muse. Recent. Suppl
1: 170. 1806.
Fissidens insignis Schimp.; C. MuU. Bot. Zeit. 22: 339. 1864.
Fissidens grandifrons var. sirictus Besch. Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg 16: 171. 1872. Plants large, 3-15 cm. long, the fronds 3-4 mm. wide, dark green, often dark brown and lime-encrusted below, much divided and branched, especially near the base, rigid and suberect; leaves numerous, crowded and overlapping, rigid and opaque, of equal length, 2-3 mm., linear-lanceolate, narrowly obtuse, entire, not bordered, the costa strong, vanishing in the apex; vaginant laminae more than half the length of the leaf; dorsal lamina tapering gradually to the base; leaf-cells in one layer at the margin, in several at the costa, irregularly hexagonal, 7-12 ju in diameter; dioicous; sporophyte lateral from the upper leaf-axils, rarely produced; seta up to 1.5 cm. long; capsule erect and symmetric or nearly so, oblong, the urn about 1.2 mm. long; operculum conic-rostrate, about 1 mm. long; peristome-teeth deeply inserted, the divisions rough; spores 15-24 ju in diameter.
Type IvOCauty: "Nova Anglia."
Distribution: On wet rocks in trickling water or submerged in streams in limestone regions, apparently frequent but local; southern Canada, Alberta to Ontario, Washington to California, east to New York, West Virginia, and Tennessee; Mexico; Europe, Asia, Africa, and probably South America .