Genetics
Pleurochaete squarrosa provides a substrate for flowering plants on a boulder.
Bryophytes differ from flowering plants by having a dominant life stage, the gametophyte, which is normally haploid.
Pleurochaete is haploid (n = 13) and dioecious (having separate male and female gametophytes), thus outcrossing, but asexual reproduction is assumed to be the norm.
Consequently, Pleurochaete will experience high inter-population differentiation across its sterile range due to clonal meta-populations originating from single colonisation events.