Bryum elegans Nees in S. É. von Bridel, Bryol. Univ. 1: 849. 1827; B. stirtonii Schimper

Plants small, bright to dark green, olive green, or rarely red-green. Stems 0.5-2 cm, evenly foliate, ± julaceous, innovations rosulate. Leaves of main rosette and innovations similar, ± imbricate when dry, sometimes slightly twisted and more loosely set, erect when moist, ovate to obovate, concave, 0.5-1.5 mm; base decurrent or not; margins plane or sometimes recurved to mid leaf, serrulate distally, limbidium present, of 1 or 2 rows of cells; apex broadly acute to acute; costa long-excurrent, awn sometimes hyaline, stout, straight to somewhat twisted when dry; proximal laminal cells short- to long-rectangular; medial and distal cells short-rhomboidal, 14-30 µm wide, 3-4:1, walls thin to thick, not porose. Specialized asexual reproduction very rare, by rhizoidal tubers, brown, (100-)150-200 µm. Sexual condition dioicous. [Capsule strongly nutant, red-brown, pyriform, 2-3 mm].

Calcareous rock, soil, mountains; moderate to high elevations (1000-4000 m); Alta., B.C., N.W.T., Nunavut; Alaska, Calif., Maine, Mich., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash.; Europe (including European Russia); w Asia (Turkey).

Plants of Rosulabryum elegans are typically dark green with somewhat julaceous stems, but in shaded moist areas the stems become looser with more widely set and somewhat twisted paler green decurrent leaves. These latter plants have been named Bryum stirtonii, but they intergrade completely with R. elegans from drier more exposed sites.