Stems creeping, 1 mm wide across leafy stem, monopodial or sympodial, freely and irregularly branched; paraphyllia absent. Stem leaves loosely erect, heteromallous, not falcate-secund, not crowded, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, sometimes plicate, not rugose, 0.7-1.6 mm; base narrowly decurrent; margins nearly entire proximally, serrulate distally; apex acute to acuminate; costa double, 1/4-1/2 leaf length; alar cells differentiated; laminal cells scattered-prorulate. Branch leaves ovate to elliptic-lanceolate. [Capsule erect; operculum long-conic or obliquely rostrate; exostome teeth smooth proximally; endostome segments not perforate].

Species 3 (1 in the flora): se United States, Mexico, se Asia; montane in warm temperate to tropical regions.

Generic concepts of Leptohymenium have varied greatly, but a constant critical character has been the erect, elongate capsules. The genus is circumscribed here in the restricted sense of V. F. Brotherus (1908, 1925) and J. R. Rohrer (1985).

Lower Taxon

• Leptohymenium sharpii (H. A. Crum & L. E. Anderson) W. R. Buck & H. A. Crum