Dicranum alpinum (Mild.) Kindb., Eur. N. Amer. Bryin. 2: 187. 1897, hom. illeg. Metzlerella alpina (Mild.) Hag., Konge. Norske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. (Trondheim) 1914(1): 63. 1915. Atractylocarpus sinensis (Broth.) Herz., Ann. Bryol. 12: 87. 1939. Metzlerella sinensis Broth., in Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 4: 19. 1929. Type. China: Yunnan, between Meng-kang and Salwin, Handel-Mazzetti 8368 (holotype H).

Plants small, slender, up to 1 cm high, yellowish green to brownish green, shiny in loose to dense tufts. Stems erect, simple or sparsely branched. Leaves erect-spreading when moist, slightly falcate-secund when dry, narrowly ovate-lanceolate at base, subulate to tubulosely setaceous above; margins entire or serrulate near the apex, often recurved; costa broad, occupying ½ – 2/3 the leaf base width, filling most of leaf subula and long excurrent, roughened at the back; marginal cells linear, becoming wider toward the costa, hyaline at the base. Autoicous. Setae 6–8 mm long, yellowish; capsules narrowly cylindric; annuli none; stomata absent; opercula long-rostrate; peristome teeth 2 to 3-divided, nearly to the base, papillose above, vertically striate below. Spores 20–24 µm in diameter.

Type. Switzerland.

Chinese specimens examined: SICHUAN: Ning-yun Co., Handel-Mazzetti 1523 (H); Li Co., Allen 6801 (MO). YUNNAN: between Meng-kang and Salwin, Handel-Mazzetti 8213 (H, as Metzlerella sinensis); Alm Dotitong, Handel-Mazzetti 9984, 9943 (H); Da-li Co., Redfearn et al. 1541b, 1156 (MO).

Habitat: on moist humic soil, rocks or rotten wood in high mountain forests; Distribution: China, India, and Europe.

Illustrations: C. Gao (ed.) 1994 (Pl. 84, figs. 10–21; figs. 1–9, as Atractylocarpus sinensis).