Plants small to medium-sized, 1–2(–6) cm high, green to yellowish green, somewhat shiny, in loose tufts. Stems erect or ascending, radiculose at base, simple or branched. Leaves erect to falcate-secund when wet, flexuose when dry, 2.0–4.5 mm long, lanceolate from a narrowly ovate base, gradually subulate to the apex; margins plane, entire or serrulate near the apex, sometimes bistratose; costa slender, shortly excurrent; upper cells quadrate to rectangular, sometimes mammillose; basal cells quadrate to short-rectangular, elongate near the costa, sometimes porose; alar cells distinct, large, thin-walled, rounded-quadrate. Autoicous. Androecia immediately below the perichaetia. Perichaetial leaves enlarged, 4–5 mm long, sheathing at base, filiform near the apex. Setae 8–11(–15) mm long, yellowish when young, reddish when old; capsules ellipsoid to subcylindric, curved, inclined, distinctly strumose, urns 1.5–2.0 mm long; exothecial cells mostly twice as long as wide, thin-walled; opercula obliquely long-rostrate, nearly as long as the urns; annuli compound, in 2–3 rows of large cells, deciduous; peristome teeth divided to the middle, vertically striolate on the dorsal surface. Spores 14–21 µm in diameter, finely papillose.

Type. Poland/Czech: Silesia, Starke s.n.

Chinese specimens examined: HEILONGJIANG: Da Xing An Ling (Greater Khingan Mt.), C. Gao 13192 (IFSBH). JILIN: An-tuo Co., C. Gao 22200 (IFSBH). SICHUAN: Lei-bo Co., Z.-T. Guan 8782 (MO, as Dicranum starkei); Ya-an Co., C. Gao 17277 (IFSBH).

Habitat: on soil or rocks; Distribution: China, Japan, Russian Far East, Europe, and North America.

Illustrations: C. Gao (ed.) 1994 (Pl. 105, figs. 7–10).