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

Species description:
Genus name meaning oblique footed, perhaps in reference to the seta and its connection to the sporangium in the original specimen upon which the name is based. Species named in honour of G.C. von Oeder (1728-1791), a Danish botanist who first recognized this moss as distinctive.

Reproduction:
Sporophytes frequent, maturing in spring; dark brown when ripe.

Distinguishing characteristics:
The roughly three-ranked leaf arrangement, the dark green leaves that are not glossy, the calcareous habitat and spherical sporangia are useful features.

Habit:
Forming short to tall, dark green turfs of unbranched plants, sometimes with notably three-ranked leaf arrangement (the stem is triangular in cross section).

Similar Species:
All species of Bartramia have somewhat glossy, yellowish-green, rather than dull dark green leaves as in Plagiopus. In Anacolia menziesii the plants are heavily invested with rhizoids and the leaves are little altered when dry and golden yellow-green compared to the dark green of Plagiopus.