Plants small to medium-sized, in thin to dense mats, whitish, yellowish, or green, glossy. Stems creeping, simple or sparingly and irregularly branched; hyalodermis absent, central strand usually absent; pseudoparaphyllia filamentous, <1 (or 2)-seriate at base>. Stem and branch leaves similar, erect-spreading to squarrose, ovate or lanceolate, not plicate; base not decurrent or rarely 1 or 2 cells decurrent; margins plane to erect, serrulate to entire proximally, serrate to serrulate distally, or rarely entire throughout; apex acuminate; costa double and short or sometimes ecostate; alar cells usually clearly differentiated, quadrate to rectangular, rarely transversely elongate; laminal cells smooth. Specialized asexual reproduction sometimes present as filamentous, multicellular, branched brood bodies on stems and branches, cells papillose. Sexual condition autoicous [rarely dioicous]; perichaetia at base of stems, leaves oblong-lanceolate, apex gradually acuminate. Seta yellow, brown, or reddish brown. Capsule inclined to cernuous, sometimes erect, ovoid to ellipsoid, straight or arcuate when mature, usually contracted below mouth and sometimes wrinkled at neck when dry; annulus absent; operculum conic to short-rostrate; peristome double; exostome teeth with external surface cross striolate proximally, papillose distally; endostome basal membrane high to low, segments keeled, cilia shorter than segments, in groups of 1-3, sometimes absent. Calyptra naked. Spores spheric to ovoid, smooth or minutely papillose.
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