13.
Tortula truncata
(Hedwig) Mitten in F. D. Godman, Nat. Hist. Azores. 297. 1870.
Gymnostomum truncatum
Hedwig, Sp. Musc. Frond., 30. 1801;
Pottia truncata
(Hedwig) Bruch & Schimper
Leaves
obovate to spatulate, apex broadly acute or occasionally rounded, short-awned, margins plane or rarely weakly recurved proximally, weakly bordered distally with 2-4 rows of slightly thicker-walled cells; costa excurrent, lacking an adaxial pad of cells, distally narrow, 2 cells across the convex or plane adaxial surface; distal laminal cells irregularly hexagonal, width 18-22(-27) µm wide, 1:1, smooth.
Sexual condition
autoicous.
Sporophytes
exerted.
Seta
0.25-0.4(-0.6) cm.
Capsule
stegocarpic, not systylius, urceolate or obovate, erect and nearly straight, urn 0.6-1 mm; peristome absent; operculum 0.3-0.5 mm.
Spores
25-30 µm, spheric, densely papillose.
Capsules mature fall-spring. Soil, calcareous soil with grasses, fields, lawns, roadsides; low to moderate elevations; B.C., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask.; Conn., Ill., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.J., N.Y., Pa., R.I., Vt., Wash., Wis.; s South America; Europe; Asia; n Africa; Atlantic Islands; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia.
Both
Tortula truncata
and
T. modica
may have distinct denticulations near the leaf apex or nearly throughout, and this can be more pronounced in the latter, which usually has papillose laminae.