Plants small, with stemless appearance, dark green. Stems very short; rhizoids glossy blackish-red. Leaves monomorphic, curled when dry, straight and ascending when moist, mostly to 7–8(–9) mm long, linear above slightly broader base, abruptly or gradually pointed, with often abundant pale axillary hairs with longest median cells mostly 3–4 times as long as wide; cells of upper laminae often bistratose, transversely elongate to isodiametric, typically pluripapillose abaxially and adaxially but in some leaves nearly smooth; margins thickened, entire to remotely denticulate at midleaf, doubly toothed distally, teniolae lacking; distal cells of cancellinae sharply demarcated from adjacent green cells of upper laminae. Gemmae infrequent, adaxially located on leaf tips. Sporophytes not seen.

Type. China: Hainan province, Ling-shui Co., ca. 11 km NE of Diao-luo Shan Forestry Station, ca. 18°40'N, 109°55'E, Reese et al. 17942 (holotype IBSC; isotypes H, LAF, MO, NY, PE).

Chinese specimens examined: HAINAN: Chang-jiang Co., Reese et al. 17495 (IBSC, LAF, MO), Redfearn et al. 35698 (LAF, MO); Le-dong Co., P.-J. Lin & Li 491 (IBSC, LAF, MO), Reese 17727 (LAF, MO); Ling-shui Co., Reese et al. 17933 (IBSC, LAF, MO); Qiong-zhong Co., P.-J. Lin et al. 30 (IBSC, LAF, SYS).

Habitat: frequent and sometimes abundant on rock, tree trunks and bases, rotted logs, rarely on soil, in forests at low to moderate elevations from 70 to 1500 m, mostly at lower elevations; Distribution: endemic to China. The var. levyanum occurs in tropical America and southern Africa.

The var. hainanense differs from the American and African var. levyanum primarily in having its leaf cells less consistently and less densely papillose. It is common and often abundant in southern Hainan Island, where it replaces for the most part C. lonchophyllum Schwaegr. The latter occurs in the same general area but is very infrequent. Often the two taxa cannot be distinguished without sectioning leaves to look for papillae.

Illustrations: Pl. 92, figs. 1–5.