Autoicous. Plants in yellowish brown tufts. Stems erect. Leaves strongly twisted but not crisped when dry, widely spreading and twisted when moist, linear-lanceolate, c. 2 mm long, narrowly acuminate with an acute apex; base expanding to asymmetrical, broadly ovate; costa ending below or in apex; upper laminal cells short-rectangular; mid-laminal cells irregularly rounded and thicker-walled; basal laminal cells very narrow, long, the basal marginal cells in 4–6 rows.

Perichaetial leaves sheathing at base. Setae 2.5–5.0 mm long, yellowish. Capsules oblong-ovoid to subcylindrical, 8-ribbed to base; operculum with a yellow rim; stomata in middle to upper part of urn. Peristome: exostome teeth lanceolate, densely papillose, perforate and trabeculate at apices, splitting, recurved when dry; endostome segments 8, filiform, nodose. Spores unicellular, 27–30 µm diameter, finely papillose. Chromosome number not known.

Ulota cochleata is difficult to identify on leaf structure alone, although the twisted (but not crisped) leaves, even when moist, are longer above the base than those of other species. The location of the stomata in the middle to upper parts of the urn rather than the base and neck of the capsule, and the filiform, nodose endostome segments are also distinctive.

The oblong-ovoid capsules differ from those of U. lutea in the absence of the long neck and the filiform endostome segments. Although the leaves have ovate, concave bases similar to U. lutea, they lack indentations above the base, and they also differ in the width of the hyaline borders. Moreover, the upper cells are more rectangular and less thick-walled.

Native.

A rare endemic in Victoria and Tasmania.

Found at high altitudes in the canopy of, for example, Nothofagus and Tasmannia.

Ulota cochleata Venturi ex Broth., Oefvers Förh. Finska Vetensk.-Soc. 35: 42 (1893). Type: Springs to Falls, Mount Wellington, Tas., 2. Mar. 1891, W.A. Weymouth 898; holo: TR; iso: HO.

Taxonomic synonym

Ulota membranacea D.H.Ashton & R.F.McCrea, Victorian Naturalist 87: 254 (1970), nom. nud.

Vic.: Healesville, I.G. Stone 779 (MEL); Cumberland, I.G. Stone 9230 (MEL).

Tas.: Lake Lea, 16 May 1992, S.J. Jarman s.n. (HO).

Index Muscorum listed Ulota cochleata as a synonym of U. viridis and attributed this synonymy to Malta (op. cit. 13), a decision followed by Streimann & Curnow (Catalogue of the Mosses of Australia and its External Territories 388, 1989) and Streimann & Klazenga (Catalogue of Australian Mosses 181, 2002). This is an error, probably based on H.N. Dixon (Bull. New Zealand Inst. 3(6): 366, 1929) who examined a specimen (Weymouth 1524, named as U. cochleata, but not the type and not authenticated by Malta), and suggested that it was similar to U. anceps (now in synonymy with U. viridis). Dixon was correct in determining that Weymouth 1524 is U. viridis (U. anceps). However, U. cochleata is a distinct species (Malta, 1933; Scott & Stone, 1976).

Malta, N. (1933). A survey of Australasian species of Ulota. Acta Horti Bot. Univ. Latv. 7: 1–24.

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

H.P. Ramsay, D.H. Vitt & J. Lewinsky-Haapasaari (2012), Australian Mosses Online 47. Orthotrichaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version16 June 2012. 

First published as: H.P. Ramsay (2006), Orthotrichaceae: Ulota, Fl. Australia 51: 228–236. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.