Plagiothecium elegans var. terrestre (Lindberg) Rau & Hervey
Plants in thin to dense mats, dark-to yellowish green, glossy. Stems to 35 × 1.0--2.5 mm, complanate, simple or irregularly branched. Leaves semi-flaccid to rigid, close to somewhat distant, erect-spreading or sometimes secund with apices pointing toward substratum, somewhat concave, smooth, 0.3--2.0 × 0.2--0.7 mm, lanceolate, ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, symmetric, acuminate; margins plane, serrulate to strongly serrate distally, serrulate to entire proximally; costa usually strong, short and double; median cells smooth, 48--100 × 4--7 µm; alar cells undifferentiated or 1--3 quadrate to rectangular cells on margins. Specialized asexual reproduction present as propagula clustered in leaf axils below stem apices, 0.5--1.5 mm, yellow to green, smooth-celled, resembling the parent plant but smaller, bearing reduced leaves from apex to base of stems. Sexual condition dioicous. Seta dark red, 1.0--2.5 cm. Capsule cernuous to pendulous, straight or subarcuate, 1--2 mm, oblong-ovoid to ovoid, wrinkled and contracted below mouth when dry; operculum conic to short-rostrate, 0.4--0.7 mm. Spores 7--12 µm.
Capsules mature spring--summer. Woods, acidic rock and soil, humus, bases of trees, and rotten logs; 0--1980 m; B.C., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Yukon; Alaska, Ala., Ark., Calif., Conn., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mich., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va..; South America (Argentina).
This species is distinguished by the close to somewhat distant, erect-spreading, lanceolate, ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, symmetric, acuminate leaves with serrulate to strongly serrate margins, the narrow median leaf cells, the poorly differentiated alar cells, 1–3 marginal cells quadrate to rectangular, and the presence of clusters of propagula in the leaf axils below stem apices, the propagula resembling the parent plant but smaller, bearing reduced leaves on the stems from apex to base. Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans is morphologically close to P. distichaceum. For distinctions see discussion of that species.