Plants small, yellowish green to brownish green, in dense or loose tufts. Stems erect, usually simple, rarely branched; central strand present. Leaves imbricate, appressed when dry, weakly erect-spreading when moist, broadly ovate to circular, rather concave, rounded-obtuse to broadly acute, ending in a hyaline apical patch; margins strongly revolute, entire; costa slender, excurrent in a long, smooth, hyaline awn, in cross section one stereid band centrally located; upper leaf cells hexagonal to short-rectangular to rhomboidal at the apex, thin-walled, inner cells smooth, usually papillose on revolute margins; basal cells weakly differentiated, mostly short-rectangular, thin-walled, smooth. Autoicous. Setae straight, elongate; capsules erect, ovoid-cylindrical to cylindrical; peristome teeth 32, linear, 1–2 twisted counterclockwise, densely papillose; opercula long conic-rostrate; annuli differentiated, consisting of 2–3 rows of quadrate, vesiculose cells, deciduous. Calyptrae cucullate, smooth. Spores spherical, light brown, finely papillose.

Lower Taxon

• Hilpertia velenovskyi (Schiffn.) Zand.