Ulota lutea var. lutea
Autoicous. Cushions or tufts, bright green to yellow-green, 10–15 mm tall. Stem erect, red to red-brown, with scattered red rhizoids. Leaves erect-spreading when moist, strongly crisped, twisted and contorted when dry, linear-lanceolate, 1–2.5 mm long, 0.4–0.5 mm wide, abruptly widened to a concave, ovate or obovate base; apex short-acuminate; costa ending just below apex; margin entire, recurved just above base, forming an indentation; laminal cells in apical half irregularly isodiametric, 5–15 μm long, 5–13 μm wide, unistratose, mammillose; basal laminal cells away from margin abruptly delimited by leaf shoulder, sigmoid, 17–60 μm long, 4–6 μm wide, smooth, yellow; basal marginal cells less elongate, quadrate or rectangular, 10–30 μm long, 5–10 μm wide, clear, forming a distinct border extending to leaf shoulder, 2–6 rows wide. Seta 3–6 mm long, yellow to yellow-brown, smooth, twisted anticlockwise. Capsules narrowly cylindric, 1–2.5 mm long, yellowish to brown, 8-ribbed; neck long, smooth, tapering, often twisted with seta when dry. Exostome teeth recurved when dry; endostome segments 8, rarely with 8 intermediate ones. Operculum rostrate from conic base, c. 0.4 mm long.
HNF, MonT, HFE, VAlp. New Zealand. Recorded from montane forest and cool-temperate rainforest, usually above 1000 metres above sea level east of Melbourne (e.g. around Mount Donna Buang, Lake Mountain, Baw Baw Plateau and the Erinundra Plateau in East Gippsland).
This is the most commonly encountered species of Ulota in Australia and is also variable. A combination of an abruptly recurved margin forming an indentation at the shoulder and long smooth tapered necks without ribbing allows it to be distinguished in all cases (Ramsay 2006).
SpinningRamsay, H.P. (2006). Ulota. Flora of Australia 51: 228–236.
