Autoicous. Plants forming cushions or tufts, 10–25 mm tall, bright green to yellow-green or brown above, brown below. Stems erect. Leaves strongly crisped, twisted and contorted when dry, imbricate, spreading when moist, long, linear-lanceolate, 1.5–2.3 mm long, c. 0.4 mm wide, abruptly widened to a concave, ovate or obovate base; apex short-acuminate; margin entire, recurved just above base, forming an indentation; costa ending just below apex; upper laminal cells irregularly isodiametric, 9–13 µm wide; basal laminal cells long, narrow, 36–60 × 6 µm, with sigmoid lumina, the margins with 2–5 rows of quadrate cells.

Perichaetial leaves broader and more obtuse at base than stem leaves. Setae 3–6 mm long, yellow. Capsules narrowly cylindrical, 1–2 mm long, rarely shorter, 8-ribbed from mouth to base of urn; neck long, smooth, tapering, often twisted with seta when dry; stomata in neck of capsule; rim of operculum not coloured. Peristome with exostome segments transversely barred in upper part of the ventral surface, recurved when dry, pale, papillose; endostome segments 8, rarely with 8 intermediate ones, filiform, smooth, finely papillose, hyaline. Spores unicellular, 22–30 (–34) µm diameter, densely papillose.

This is the most frequently collected species of Ulota in Australia. It is variable in leaf shape and size, and in the form of the capsules and peristome. The usually narrow, hyaline leaf border varies in width and is not always conspicuous. The abruptly recurved margin and indentation just above the widened base is distinct, and specimens are readily identified where this is combined with capsules having long, smooth, tapered necks. The necks often become twisted with the setae, but they are smooth and not ribbed as is the urn of the capsule.

n = 11, cited in H.P.Ramsay, J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 74: 189 (1993).

Native.

Widely distributed in New Zealand. A southern-temperate species in Victoria and Tasmania.

Ulota lutea (Hook.f. & Wilson) Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 4: 77 (1860); Orthotrichum luteum Hook.f. & Wilson, in J.D.Hooker, Fl. Tasman. 1: 184 (1856). Type: rivulet behind Cummings Head, Western Mountains, Tas., W.Archer; holo: H-BR; iso: HO.

Taxonomic synonyms

Ulota weymouthii Burchard, Pap. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania 1893: 200 (1894). Type: Falls Track, Mt Wellington, Tas., 1891, W.A.Weymouth 615; holo: H-BR; iso: HO.

Ulota lutea var. glaucescens Venturi ex Watts & Whitel., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 30 (Suppl.): 8 (1906). Type: McRobies Gully, near Hobart, Tas., 13 Aug. 1892, W.A.Weymouth 1532; holo: TR; iso: HO.

Ulota crocea Watts & Whitel., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 30 (Suppl.): 96 (1906), nom. nud.

Malta (Acta Horti Bot. Univ. Latv. 7: 5 (1933)) based his description on a number of Weymouth collections from H-BR in addition to the type. Duplicates of some of these, Weymouth 1535, 1539 (as U. lutea) and Weymouth 615 (as U. weymouthii) are present in HO.

A.J.Fife (pers. comm.) has a much broader concept of Ulota lutea based on studies of New Zealand material and places U. laticiliata into synonymy, a decision not followed here.

Two varieties, in addition to the type variety of U. lutea, were listed by Malta (Acta Horti Bot. Univ. Latv. 7: 5 (1933)). After studying “very scanty material”, he concluded that “U. lutea var. glaucescens” (Malta, op. cit. 8) does not belong to U. lutea but is possibly U. viridis. However, a good Weymouth specimen (1532) labelled “n. sp.” at HO is clearly a slightly glaucous form of U. lutea but not distinct enough to be considered a separate variety. A second variety, var. robusta, listed as a form by Malta (op. cit. 6), is here considered to be distinct from the type variety.

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

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.