Brachyodon trichodes (Web.) Fürnr., Flora 10 (1) Beibl. 3: 112. 1827. Brachyodus trichodes (Web.) Nees, Hornsch. & Sturm, Bryol. Germ., 2(2): 5. 1831.

Plants very small, 1–2 mm high, dull, yellowish brown. Stems erect or ascending, often simple. Leaves erect, in many rows, sometimes flattened and pseudodistichous, not altered when dry, linear-lanceolate, 1.0–1.5(–2) mm long; margins entire, sometimes irregularly serrulate at the shoulders; costa strong, filling most of the subula, excurrent; leaf cells obscure, subquadrate, thick-walled, smooth at shoulders, becoming short-rectangular below, rather laxly oblong-rhomboidal, pale at the insertion. Setae 2.0–2.5 mm long, erect, yellow, twisted above when dry; capsules cylindric, 0.4–0.5 mm long, yellow to pale brown, striate when dry; opercula rostrate, 0.3–0.4 mm long; annuli well developed, compound, 2–3 rows of large cells, deciduous when mature; peristome teeth very short, lanceolate or blunt to truncate, hyaline or pale yellow, faintly to densely papillose or sometimes smooth. Spores 8–12 µm, smooth, pale-yellow.

Type. Germany: Weber s.n.

Chinese specimen examined: SICHUAN: Mu-li Co., C. Gao s.n. (IFSBH).

Habitat: on moist, acid rocks or on sandy soil; Distribution: China, Ukraine, Europe, and North America.

The leaves of this species can be confused with those of Ditrichum and Seligeria, but the presence of very small plants, oblong-cylindric and striate capsules, straight rostrate opercula, very short, often papillose peristome teeth, and the presence of large, compound annuli are significant differences.

Illustrations: C. Gao (ed.) 1994 (Pl. 45, figs. 11–16).