Description: Small, green to yellow-green, pleurocarpous moss, forming thin mats. Leaves catenulate (spreading from their bases and apically arch back across the stem, resembling links of a chain), muticous (without hair-points); median laminal cells strongly papillose, with each cell having a single, large papilla (small projection) on the surface. This moss is not known to reproduce sexually in Clark County, Nevada.
Habitat: Occurs in the pinyon-juniper community, in recessed cave-like sheltered areas that never receive direct sunlight. On soil or soil over rock, sometimes found on logs or roots. Elevation: 1,450 m (4,750 ft.).
Range: A common West Coast species, abundant in California. In Clark County, Nevada, known from the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in the Spring Mountains.
Comments: Claopodium is one of the few local pleurocarpous mosses whose median laminal cells are strongly papillose, a feature recognizable in the field by the opaque appearance of the golden-green plant.