Leucobryum auriculatum C. Müll. in Geh., Biblioth. Bot. 13: 2. 1889. Leucobryum papuense Par., Index Bryol. 752. 1896.

Plants large-sized, often robust, up to 10 cm high, ca. 1 cm wide, whitish green, in loose tufts. Stems erect, bearing many soft-twisted branches; central strand present. Leaves not in ranks, typically soft-textured, slightly flexuose or somewhat squarrose, ca. 5.5–6.5 mm × 1.0–1.5 mm, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, gradually narrowed to subtubulose apices from broadly elliptic base, acute to bluntly mucronate at the apex; dorsal side of leaf acumina papillosely prorate; laminal border on the upper parts of the leaves indistinct, laminae near leaf base consisting of 3–4 rows of rectangular to linear cells, alar cells distinct differentiated into rounded, auricles, usually with large, hyaline, quadrate cells; costae in cross section near leaf base consisting of a median layer of chlorocysts with 1 layer of leucocysts on abaxial side, 1–2 layers of leucocysts on adaxial side near leaf base. Dioicous. Sporophytes not seen. [According to Yamaguchi (1993), setae 2.5–3.0 cm long; capsules horizontal, ellipsoid, 1.3–1.5 mm × 0.8 mm, slightly to strongly curved, asymmetrical, distinctly strumose. Other sporophytic features were reported to be the same as those described under the genus.]

Type. Indonesia: Java, Blume s.n.

Chinese specimens examined: GUANGDONG: Bo-luo Co., E. D. Merrill 11154 (PNH). HAINAN: Jie-feng-ling (Mt.), P.-C. Chen et al. 743a (IBSC, PE).

Habitat: on soil or humus under forests; Distribution: China, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, New Guinea, and Fiji.

Illustrations: Pl. 68, figs. 1–3. Yamaguchi 1993 (Pls. LIV–LVII).