Plants 5-40(-70) mm, in dense cushions to loose mats, olivaceous, dark black-green to rusty-red-brown. Leaves broadly oblong-ovate, oblong-lanceolate, to narrowly ovate-lanceolate, rarely ligulate, concave or keeled distally, margins plane, incurved or recurved, distal lamina 1-stratose to multistratose, specialized laminal and marginal chlorophyllose structures absent, muticous to long-awned but awns only rarely longer than lamina; basal cells oblate to elongate, with straight or sinuose and thin to thick cell walls; mid leaf and distal cells quadrate to rectangular, usually sinuose and thick-walled. Gemmae present or absent. Sexual condition autoicous or dioicous; perichaetial leaves enlarged or not. Seta short to long, straight, arcuate, or rarely sigmoid. Capsule erect, rarely pendent, immersed to long exserted, symmetric or rarely ventricose (Gasterogrimmia), ovoid to obloid, rarely globose or cylindric; annulus poorly differentiated or well-defined comprised of quadrate, thin-walled or quadrate to rectangular, thick-walled cells; operculum mammillate, conic, or rostrate, falling detached from the columella. Calyptra mitrate or cucullate, not erose, small to medium, usually covering 1/2 or less of capsule, sometimes just covering operculum, smooth.
Home