E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Species description:
Species name describing the shining, brightly coloured plants.

Reproduction:
Sporophytes frequent, red-brown, with long-cylindric, suberect sporangia, maturing in late winter to spring.

Comments:
H. lutescens, a European species, was once considered to be identical to H. fulgescens.

Distinguishing characteristics:
The usually irregularly branched, coarse plants that produce long-cylindric, somewhat curved sporangia, the pleated leaves and the usual habitat on tree trunks are useful features to separate this species.

Habit:
Forming interwoven mats of yellow-green to dark green, glossy, creeping, much-branched plants 50-170 mm long; usually at­tached to substratum by red rhizoids. Leaves strongly pleated with the midrib resembling a central pleat. Plants not curling upward markedly when dry.

Similar Species:
The irregular branching and the usual coarseness of the plants are enough to separate H. fulgescens from H. nuttal/ii. On populations on rock, the sporophyte shape distinguishes H. fulgescens from H. aeneum in which sporangia are short-cylindric and bent at a sharp angle at the seta apex. H. nevadense of the interior has erect spo­rangia, which mature in summer rather than spring, but the plants are on shaded cliffs and usually are formed of densely compacted branches that form a turf-like mass over the substratum.