4. Brothera Müller Hal., Gen. Musc. Frond. 258. 1901.
[For Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus, 1849-1929, Finnish bryologist]
Jan-Peter Frahm
Plants small, 3-6 mm, in dense, yellowish to grayish green mats. Stems radiculose at base. Leaves erect-patent when dry, lanceolate, gradually contracted to a short, canaliculate apex; costa filling 2/3 of the leaf base, not sharply delimited from the lamina, excurrent, in transverse section with lax abaxial and adaxial hyalocysts and a median band of stereids; alar cells weakly differentiated, hyaline; basal laminal cells hyaline, of 8-10 rows, 2-stratose towards the costa, rectangular; distal laminal cells rectangular. Sexual condition dioicous. Seta 5-6 mm, yellowish, sinuose and twisted sinistrorse in the distal portion. Capsule erect, yellowish green, 0.5 × 1.2 mm, smooth, contracted towards the peristome; annulus present; operculum rostrate, half the length of the urn; peristome teeth 16, entire or rarely perforated, yellowish, striate at base and papillose at tips, 210-240 µm. Calyptra cucullate, fringed at base. Spores yellowish green, smooth, 10-13 µm; exothecial walls incrassate, variable, without stomata.
Species 1: e North America, Mexico, Central America, Asia, Africa.
