Plants small to large, in dense turfs, green, yellow-green, red-brown, pink, or red. Stems 0.5-4 cm, evenly foliate, not or rarely weakly julaceous, somewhat branched; rhizoids few (many in P. brachyneura), micronemata and macronemata absent from stems or present in clusters on proximal stem. Leaves imbricate to somewhat contorted when dry, erect to erect-spreading when moist, ovate to suborbicular, flat to concave, 0.4-3(-3.5) mm; base decurrent or not; margins plane or sometimes recurved proximally, ± entire, 1-3-stratose, limbidium absent or present; apex obtuse to acute; costa not reaching apex to very short-excurrent, apiculus smooth, guide cells absent or sometimes present proximally; alar cells not differentiated from juxtacostal cells; laminal areolation somewhat heterogeneous; proximal laminal cells usually long-rectangular, 3-5:1; medial and distal cells highly variable, irregularly rhomboidal, sometimes ± quadrate near apex, , 1-4:1, walls thin or incrassate, not pitted. Specialized asexual reproduction absent or by rhizoidal tubers . Sexual condition dioicous or rarely synoicous; perigonia and perichaetia terminal, leaves same size as vegetative leaves or usually larger, not forming rosette, inner leaves little differentiated. Seta single, straight to flexuose or twisted, rarely geniculate. Capsule inclined to suberect, elongate-pyriform, , 2-4 mm; hypophysis differentiated, often elongate; operculum conic, apiculate or not, not rostrate; peristome double; exostome pale yellow or tan proximally, hyaline distally, teeth lanceolate; endostome separate from exostome or sometimes adherent, basal membrane high, segments rarely longer than exostome, rarely absent, narrowly perforate, cilia absent or sometimes present. Spores shed singly, 11-28 µm, papillose or smooth, pale brown, tan, or yellow-tan.
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