Drummond's Bruchia Moss

The capsule of Bruchia drummondii is immersed in the perichaetial leaves or emergent, but not hidden by the leaf tips. This species is easily identified by the long-subulate leaves, relatively squat capsule, and reticulate spores.

Distal leaves long-subulate beyond an ovate, obovate, or broadly elliptic base, 1-3.2 mm, leaf base strongly differentiated in shape; distal laminal cells long-rectangular. Sexual condition autoicous. Seta 0.2-0.7 mm. Capsule neck short, broadly obovate to truncate. Spores reticulate. Calyptra smooth.

Bruchia drummondii Hanipe ; Jaeger, Ber. St. Gall Nat. Ges. 1868-69 : 97. 1869.
Bruchia brevipes SuU. in A. Gray, Man. ed. 2. 617. 1856. Not B. brevipes Hook. 1840. Bruchia microcarpa Wilson; Jaeger, Ber. St. Gall. Nat. Ges. 1868-69: 98, in part. 1869.
Plants gregarious, glossy, yellow, 3-4 m. high; stems I mm. high, decumbent and naked at the base, densely leafy above: perichaetial leaves often 3 mm. long, erect or subsecund, the base broad, less than one third the length of the abruptly contracted slender awn; costa narrow, not occupying quite all of the serrate, channeled awn, occasionally rough on the back; cells narrow, those at the base more lax. Autoicous: antheridia in basal buds: seta short, 0.250.50 mm. long: calyptra smooth, lobate: capsule erect, immersed or slightly exserted laterally, one or two in the same perichaetium, 1-2 mm. long, pyriform, apiculate, the upper half bright orange-colored; neck shorter, paler, truncate at the base: spores 35-48 m. rarely 54-56 ;u in diameter, with large reticulations 8 /i in diameter, maturing in March and April.
Type locality: Ix>iiisiana.
Distribution: Virginia to Georgia and Ix>uisiana, in sandy ground.