Hypnum sect. Pleurozium Sullivant in A. Gray, Manual ed. 2, 668. 1856

Stems creeping to erect-ascending, 1-3 mm wide across leafy stem, monopodial, irregularly to regularly 1 (or 2)-pinnate; paraphyllia absent. Stem leaves loosely appressed to spreading, heteromallous, not falcate-secund, distinctly crowded and imbricate at stem apices, ovate to elliptic, wrinkled when dry, not plicate or rugose when moist, 1.5-2.8 mm; base short-decurrent; margins entire except at apex; apex rounded to obtuse, often appearing bluntly apiculate because of broadly incurved margins; costa double to nearly ecostate, less than 1/4 leaf length; alar cells differentiated; laminal cells smooth. Branch leaves elliptic to lanceolate. Capsule inclined to horizontal; operculum conic; exostome teeth reticulate proximally; endostome segments broadly perforate.

Species 2 (1 in the flora): North America, Mexico, Central America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, Atlantic Islands; cool temperate to subarctic zones.

Pleurozium quitense (Mitten) B. H. Allen & Magill is found in the Andes mountain range of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Lower Taxon

• Pleurozium schreberi (Willdenow ex Bridel) Mitten