3. Polytrichum piliferum Hedw. 毛尖金发藓 mao jian jin fa xian
Sp. Musc. Frond. 90. 1801. Type: Europe.
Polytrichum juniperinum var. piliferoides W.-X. Xu & R.-L. Xiong, Acta Bot. Yunnan. 6: 183. f. 8. 1984. Type: China. Xizang: Lhari Xian, alt. 4300 m, M. Zang 2135 (holotype YUKU).
Plants rather small in comparison with other species, usually 1–3(–5) cm high. Stems simple, occasionally branched, 3–4 mm wide with leaves. Leaves 3–5(–6) mm long, lanceolate suddenly narrowed from a sheathing base, clasping when dry; leaf margins serrulate or entire, strongly involute above, covering the ventral lamellae; median leaf cells oblong-oblate or irregular, 5–8 µm × 13–25 µm, slightly thick-walled; leaf marginal cells small, thin-walled; cells at sheathing base narrowly rectangular, 40–80 µm × 8–12(–15) µm, usually unistratose; costa broad, extending into a setulose, spinose, usually hyaline apex; ventral lamellae in 25–35 rows, 6–8 cells high, rounded serrate in lateral view, thick-walled; marginal cells of lamellae pyriform, slightly wider than the lower cells. Dioicous. Setae 1.0–3.5 cm long; capsules cylindrical, with 4–5 obtuse keels, 2.5–3.5 mm × 1.5–2.0 mm, apophyses indistinct; opercula with short beaks, ca. 1 mm long. Calyptrae cucullate, ca. 4 mm long, densely ciliate on the back. Spores mostly spherical, 8–12 µm in diameter, verrucose.