Robert E. Magill

Plants small, in wiry wefts, prostrate mats, or threadlike, dark or olive green to yellowish. Stems erect to ± creeping, freely and irregularly branched to subpinnate; paraphyllia few or absent; pseudoparaphyllia foliose. Leaves erect to erect-spreading or occasionally squarrose, often homomallous, usually imbricate, concave, stem leaves often somewhat larger than branch leaves; margins entire, serrulate, or subentire; apex usually acuminate; ecostate or costa single, double, or 2-fid, short or to mid leaf; alar cells not or weakly differentiated; medial laminal cells quadrate, rhomboidal, or oblong-rhomboidal, smooth or papillose. Sexual condition dioicous. Capsule erect or horizontal, short-cylindric; operculum short-rostrate or conic, cucullate; peristome double.

Genera 6, species 28 (4 genera, 8 species in the flora): nearly worldwide; temperate and tropical regions.

Five of the genera of Pterigynandraceae are restricted to the Northern Hemisphere, including all genera found in the flora area. The one exception, Trachyphyllum A. Gepp, is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas throughout Africa, central parts of South America, and southern Asia.

Lower Taxa

• Heterocladium Schimper
• Iwatsukiella W. R. Buck & H. A. Crum
• Myurella Schimper
• Pterigynandrum Hedwig