Plants to 3 cm, in dense tufts, blackish proximally, golden green distally. Leaves 5-10 mm, the distal ones longest, erect patent when wet, appressed when dry, narrowly lanceolate, long-subulate, ending in a straight, fine, almost entire apex, piliferous at least in the distalmost leaves and plants from exposed habitats, rarely subhyaline; alar cells reddish brown, inflated; basal laminal cells thick-walled, rectangular, narrower at margins, thin-walled in perichaetial leaves; distal laminal cells shortly rectangular or oblique, 3-5:1; costa filling 1/2-3/4 of leaf width, excurrent, in transverse section showing abaxial groups of stereids and adaxial firm-walled hyalocysts, slightly abaxially ridged. Specialized asexual reproduction by deciduous stem tips or deciduous leaves. Sporophytes not known from the flora area.
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