Plants forming mats, cushions, or loosely caespitose, dull yellow or green to dark green. Stems 1-5(-8) cm, erect, simple or sparingly branched; sparsely tomentose or radiculose proximally. Leaves straight, not secund, more or less strongly and irregularly contorted or crisped with incurved apices when dry, the limb concave and erect-spreading to squarrose from an erect base when wet, narrowly to broadly oblong-or ovate-lanceolate or ligulate; apex acute to rounded-obtuse; margins involute-tubulose to plane or strongly recurved, rarely 2-stratose, distally irregularly and abruptly serrulate-dentate, with narrow, fragile decurrencies; apex acute to rounded-obtuse; costa narrow or broad, subpercurrent, sharply mammillose or densely covered with horned (columnar) papillae on both surfaces to nearly smooth, not rhizoidiferous, guide cells in 1 row, often individual cells in pairs, stereid bands 2 proximal to midleaf, adaxial band less developed, abaxial band strong, adaxial and abaxial epidermis distinct; all cells not pitted; medial laminal cells rounded-quadrate to short-rectangular, 1(-2):1, sharply to bluntly mammillose on both surfaces or merely convex near apex, or densely covered with horned (columnar) papillae on both surfaces, sometimes 2-stratose near costa, walls evenly thickened; alar cells not differentiated in size or color; basal cells rectangular, 3(-5):1. Specialized asexual reproduction occasional, by multicellular gemmae borne on branching stalks in leaf axils. Sexual condition autoicous or dioicous; perigonial buds below the perichaetium and sessile or terminal on male plants, perigonial leaves ovate, concave, short-acuminate; perichaetial leaves similar to distal cauline leaves. Seta single, yellow at first, becoming red-brown, 4-20 mm, erect. Capsule erect to weakly inclined, exserted, oblong-ovate, straight, arcuate to zygomorphic, with or without struma, smooth or irregularly furrowed-rugose when dry; operculum obliquely long-rostrate, usually as long as urn; basal membrane low, projecting above the mouth; peristome teeth 16, divided to the middle into 2 divisions, dark red, vertically pitted-striolate basally, papillose distally; annulus none. Calyptra cucullate, somewhat roughened at apex, covering capsule to just below the mouth. Spores 12-18(-20) µm, smooth or minutely papillose.
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