Lescuraea striata var. saxicola Schimper in P. Bruch and W. P. Schimper, Bryol. Europ. 5: 103, plate 459. 1851; L. iliamniana E. Lawton; L. julacea Bescherelle & Cardot

Stems golden or orange with age, weakly appressed to substrate, branches many, curved to erect, often hooked at apices; paraphyllia not much branched, sometimes nearly absent. Stem leaves not catenulate, irregular, asymmetric, weakly falcate-secund, lustrous, weakly to strongly concave, distinctly 1 (or 2)-plicate, 0.7-1.4 mm; costa orange at least at base, distal abaxial surface serrulate; alar cells smooth, walls thin, region small; proximal laminal cells usually smooth; medial cells 14-50 × 4-7 µm, slightly shorter and wider proximally; apical cells strongly prorate. Branch leaves with medial and distal laminal cells more strongly prorulose. Seta yellow-orange, slender, flexuose. Capsule yellow-orange to red-brown, 1-2 mm; exostome teeth not bordered.

Capsules rare, mature summer (Jul-Aug). Granitic or sandstone boulders, outcrops, exposed mineral soil, seepage areas in subalpine and arctic-alpine regions; moderate to high elevations (200-3400 m); Greenland; Alta., B.C., Nfld. and Labr., Que., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Nev., Utah, Vt., Wash.; n Europe; Asia (China, India, Japan, n Russia).

Lescuraea saxicola is distinguished from most species of Pseudoleskea by its elongate, thin-walled medial laminal cells, and from P. baileyi in lacking a hair-point.