Plants slender, 1–2 cm high, dull to blackish green, in tufts. Stems erect or ascending, simple or sparsely branched, radiculose at base. Leaves 2–4 mm long, erect-spreading or flexuose when moist, moderate crispate when dry, lanceolate from a oblong-ovate base, gradually tapered to a subulate, acute to obtuse apex; margins plane, entire or serrulate near the apex; costa excurrent, consisting of rather uniform thick-walled cells, guide cells not clearly differentiated in transverse section; upper cells quadrate to shortly rectangular, mammillose; basal cells short- to elongate-rectangular, sometimes porose near the costa; alar cells quadrate, brownish, rather well differentiated. Polyoicous. Androecia far below the perichaetia or terminal on a short branch, sometimes on separate male plants. Perichaetial leaves inflated, sheathing at the base, suddenly linear-lanceolate, ca. 5 mm long. Setae straight, up to 15 mm long, yellowish green, becoming reddish brown when old; capsules short-cylindric, curved, inclined, urns 1–2 mm long, somewhat strumose at the base, not furrowed when dry; exothecial cells mostly more than twice as long as wide, thin-walled; opercula ca. ½ the length of urns; annuli compound, in 3 rows of large cells, deciduous; peristome teeth divided halfway down, papillose, vertically striolate or pitted striolate below on the dorsal surface. Spores 14–20 µm in diameter, finely papillose.

Type. Norway: Blytt. s.n.

Chinese specimens examined: XIZANG: Jin-sha Jiang (River), Z.-X. Tan 17467 (IFSBH).

Habitat: on wet rocks in forests; Distribution: China, Russia (Siberia), Europe, and North America.

Illustrations: C. Gao (ed.) 1994 (Pl. 104, figs. 11–18).