Eccremidium Wilson, London J. Bot. 5: 450. 1846.
Greek eccremes, hanging from or upon, and -idium, diminutive
William R. Buck
Plants minute, scattered or in loose to compact turfs on otherwise bare soil, seemingly ephemeral, mostly yellowish-green, sometimes reddish. Stems erect, short, simple or branched by innovations; rhizoids smooth, at base of stems. Leaves small, imbricate to spreading, lanceolate to ovate, acute to subulate, perichaetial leaves sometimes differentiated; margins plane, entire to serrate; costa single, subpercurrent to excurrent, sometimes weak or absent toward insertion and in lowermost leaves; cells smooth, not porose, median cells rhomboidal to short-rectangular, becoming longer toward the insertion. Specialized asexual reproduction not known. Sexual condition autoicous or dioicous; sterile and fertile stems sometimes differentiated. Seta solitary, short, stout, curved at apex (rarely ± straight), smooth. Capsule pendulous and laterally emergent, rarely erect and immersed, cladocarpous, reddish at maturity, subglobose, smooth; annulus near midurn, of 1--2 rows of small cells, persistent; operculum hemispheric, obtuse to apiculate; peristome none. Calyptra small, conic-mitrate, entire at base or crenate-lobed, smooth or prorulose, naked. Spores large to very large, relatively few, globose to reniform, coarsely papillose to reticulate.
Species 6 (1 in the flora): terrestrial habitats, areas at least seasonally physiologically xeric in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia
SELECTED REFERENCE
Crum, H. 1981 [1982]. Eccremidium, a genus of Ditrichaceae new to the Americas. Bryologist 84: 527--532.
OTHER REFERENCE
Vital, D. M. & A. Egunyomi. 1984. Eccremidium (Ditrichaceae) new to South America. J. Bryol. 13: 39--41.
