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

Species description:
Species name describing the strongly recurved margins of the leaves.

Reproduction:
Sporophytes occasional to rare; the plants fragment readily when dry and the fragments probably serve in propagation. Sporophytes are red-brown when ripe; sporangia are inclined to sub­erect, cylindric and curved.

Distinguishing characteristics:
The strongly revolute leaf margins and the seeming absence of midribs, combined with the dry substratum and the frequent regular branching of the golden brownish-green plants are useful features.

Habit:
Golden green to brownish-green, creeping, often regularly branched mats usually loosely attached to substratum.

Similar Species:
H. cupressiforme and H. vaucheri grow in similar habi­tats and are often the same colour as H. revotutum. They, however, lack regular branching and also lack revolute leaf margins. Microscopically, they have a triangular area of small alar cells that separate them readily from H. revotutum. Drepanoc!adus uncinatus, of similar habitats, has pleated leaves with a midrib; the leaves are very strongly curved. H. recurvatum is much more slender and is usually firmly affixed to its rock substratum.