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

Species description:
Genus name meaning "brother of Rhytidium" referring to its resemblance to Rhytidium. Species name meaning striped, possibly referring to the striped appearance made by the pleats on the leaves.

Reproduction:
Sporophytes occasional, red-brown, ripe sporangia hard, glossy, subspherical and inclined.

Comments:
R. loreus is commonly used to decorate shop windows and decoratively in hanging baskets of plants. Small decorative animals, in­cluding bears, constructed mainly of this moss, are sometimes sold in shops.

Distinguishing characteristics:
The red-brown stems, the falcate leaves at the stem tips, the glossy leaves pleated at the base and lacking obvious midribs, plus the rather coarse, relatively regularly branched plants, are useful features. The species is predominantly on forest floors.

Habit:
Forming loose mats of interwoven, brownish-green to green tinged with red (from the red stems), loosely affixed to the substratum; leaves at the tips of shoots frequently curled mainly in one direction (= falcate-secund).

Similar Species:
R. squarrosus is occasionally difficult to separate from R. loreus. R. squarrosus, however, regularly has squarrose leaves on the main stem and pleats are lacking or obscure in the leaves. R. squarrosus never possesses falcate-secund leaves at the main stem apex and is usually in open sites.