Plants tufted, white to glaucous green. Stems with subfloral innovations or sparingly branched, c. 20 mm tall. Leaves imbricate, wide-spreading, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate; apex acuminate and commonly incurled; stem leaves 0.7–1.3 mm long, 0.36–0.97 mm wide; branch leaves smaller, 0.36–0.75 mm long, 0.15–0.36 mm wide; margin slightly recurved towards the apex, papillose; costa excurrent; laminal cells ±uniform, short-rectangular to subquadrate, with a large central papillae, 10–26 × 8–10 µm.

Setae 15–20 mm long. Capsules usually horizontal, ovoid, sulcate, ±arcuate; operculum convex, umbonate. Peristome double. Spores reniform, papillose, 30–34 × 22–26 µm diameter.

This is the most distinctive Australian species of Philonotis due to its white to glaucous green colour and the subquadrate laminal cells with central papillae.

Native.

Occurs in South Australia, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania. It has also been reported for Western australia, but no specimens were examined to confirm this; also in New Zealand, South America and southern Africa.

Uncommon in moist, shaded habitats, on soil or, occasionally, on rock.

Hypnum scabrifolium Hook.f. & Wilson, London J. Bot. 3: 552 (1844); Fl. Antarct. 1: 138: 60, fig. 6 (1844). Philonotis scabrifolia (Hook.f. & Wilson) Braithw., Brit. Moss. Fl. 2: 215 (1895).
Type: Lord Auckland’s group [Auckland Is.], D.Lyall 26; holo: BM.

Taxonomic synonyms

Bartramia appressa Hook.f. & Wilson, in J.D.Hooker, Fl. Nov.-Zel. 2: 89, t. LXXXVI, fig. 5 (‘1855’) [1854]; Philonotis appressa (Hook.f. & Wilson) Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 4: 81 (1860).
Type: Fall of Waitangi, Bay of Islands, [New Zealand], J.D.Hooker 367; syn: BM; Wairapa Valley, [New Zealand], W.Colenso 825; syn: BM.

Bartramia remotifolia Hook.f. & Wilson, in J.D.Hooker, Fl. Tasman. 2: 193, t. CLXXIV, fig. 3 (1859); Philonotis remotifolia (Hook.f. & Wilson) A.Jaeger, Ber. Tätigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1873–74: 83 (1875).
Type: Gullies Rd, Browns R., Tas., A.F.Oldfield 36; syn: BM; Elliot Rivulet, near Cumming’s Head, Western Mtns, Tas., W.Archer; syn: n.v.

Bartramia catenatula Hampe, Linnaea 30: 631 (1860); Philonotis catenatula (Hampe) Paris, Index. Bryol. 919 (1896).
Type: “n alp. mont. Cobboras, 6000’”, [Vic.], F.Mueller 142; holo: BM.

Bartramia glaucescens Müll.Hal., Genera Musc. Frond. 334 (1901), nom. nud., non Bartramia glaucescens Hornsch.; Philonotis glaucescens Watts & Whitel., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 30 (Suppl.): 155 (1906), nom. nud., non Philonotis glaucescens (Hornsch.) Broth. Based on: Upper Owens R., [Vic.], syn: n.v.; “Pyers” [Tyers] R., Gippsland, [Vic.], syn: n.v.; Genoa R., [Vic.], coll. unknown 238, syn: NSW (NSW 416300).

S.A.: Hindmarsh Valley Falls, Southern Lofty Ranges, D.G.Catcheside 53.265 (AD).

N.S.W.: Murphys Track, Dora Dora State Forest, 18 km SE of Holbrook, H.Streimann 43152 (CANB); Mongo, 20 km SE of Braidwood, H.Streimann 5133 (CANB).

A.C.T.: Molonglo Gorge, 15 km E of Canberra, H.Streimann 1833 (CANB).

Vic.: Bogong High Plains road, 31 km NW of Omeo, H.Streimann 50627 (CANB).

Tas.: Myrtle Gully, Collinsvale, A.V.Ratkowsky B425 (CANB).

Scott & Stone (1976) assumed that P. glaucescens (Hornsch.) Broth. was conspecific with P. scabrifolia, but they did not examine any specimens. In fact, the American P. glaucescens is a distinct species which Scott and Stone confused with the nomen nudum P. glaucescens Watts & Whitel.

D.G.Catcheside, Mosses of South Australia 290, fig. 174 (1980); D.Meagher & B.Fuhrer, Field Guide to the Mosses and Allied Plants of Southern Australia 115 (2003); R.D.Seppelt, The Moss Flora of Macquarie Island 77, fig. 30 (2004).

Scott, G.A.M. & Stone, I.G. (1976). The Mosses of Southern Australia: 322–341. (Academic Press, London).

Gilmore, S.R. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 42. Bartramiaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 9 June 2012. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/42_Bartramiaceae.html

First published as: Gilmore, S.R. (2006). Bartramiaceae, in McCarthy, P.M (ed.) Flora of Australia 51: 248–270. (Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.)