Plants: in thin to dense mats, yellowish, dark green, or brownish. Stems: 2 cm, 0.5â2 mm wide, ascending to erect. Leaves: loosely imbricate to somewhat spreading, often squarrose, sometimes squarrose-recurved, usually straight at stem and branch apices, not plicate, 0.6â2 à 0.3â0.8 mm; base distinctly decurrent; margins serrulate to strongly serrate; alar cells rounded to oval, abruptly inflated, 14â65 à 14â24 µm, hyaline, sometimes orange to red; basal laminal cell walls pitted, sometimes pitted to mid leaf or beyond; medial cells 24â50 à 4â7 µm. Sexual: condition autoicous. Seta: light brown to red, 0.9â2 cm. Capsule: inclined to nearly erect, light brown, oblong to cylindric, slightly arcuate to straight, 1â2 à 0.3â0.5 mm, not or little contracted below mouth when dry; operculum conic to conic-apiculate, 0.3â0.4 mm. Spores: 10â15 µm. Phenology: Capsules mature summer. Habitat: Shaded soil and humus, acidic cliffs and rock, rotten logs, stumps, base of trees, exposed tree roots Elevation: low to high elevations (0-2000 m) Distribution: Greenland, B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Alaska, Conn., Del., Ga., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Europe, Asia.
Discussion: Herzogiella striatella is recognized by its close, squarrose to squarrose-recurved leaves with 2â4 rows of abruptly inflated, hyaline or orange to red, decurrent cells extending 4â6 cells down the stem. This species has a disjunct distribution in North America, occurring commonly in the eastern third of the continent and more rarely in the western part in British Columbia, Alaska, and Washington. Herzogiella striatella may have a closer relationship to H. cylindricarpa (Cardot) Z. Iwatsuki of Mexico, Central America, South America, and Africa than to other North American species, as revealed by a study of spore ornamentation (R. R. Ireland 1990). The report for Alabama by Ireland (1991b) is an error.