William D. Reese

Plants small, green to glaucous or brownish green. Stems with secondary stems decumbent to spreading and ascending, branches short to elongate, simple or irregularly branched; paraphyllia and pseudoparaphyllia absent. Leaves tightly imbricate when dry, usually wide-spreading when moist; margins plane or somewhat recurved proximally; medial laminal cells smooth or prorulose abaxially, especially distally, mostly smooth adaxially. Sexual condition autoicous; perichaetia lateral, inner leaves usually ± awned, awns usually denticulate. Seta very short. Capsule immersed; peristome double (single in C. ravenelii); exostome teeth narrowly triangular; endostome segments narrow, papillose, sometimes indistinct or absent. Calyptra conic or sometimes almost cucullate, smooth or papillose.

Species ca. 60 (4 in the flora): nearly worldwide; mostly tropical and subtropical regions.

Cryphaea occurs in thin or dense colonies, with slender, often inconspicuous branches standing out from the substrate. The dull, wiry aspect of the spreading, mostly simple branches is characteristic.

Lower Taxa

• Cryphaea filiformis (Hedwig) Bridel
• Cryphaea glomerata Schimper ex Sullivant
• Cryphaea nervosa (Hooker & Wilson) Müller Hal.
• Cryphaea ravenelii Austin