Plants minute to small, 5–10 mm high, pale green or yellowish, in tufts. Stems simple or branched, radiculose only at the base. Leaves up to 5 mm long, homomallous, slightly secund, somewhat rigid, linear-lanceolate, gradually narrowed to long-subulate; margins nearly entire, only remotely denticulate near the apex; costa broad, occupying ca. 1/3 the leaf base width, filling all the subula, with a median layer of green cells in transverse section, coverd by hyaline cells on both surfaces; upper cells above the shoulder rectangular; lower cells in the shoulder elongate, hyaline, slightly porose. Perichaetial leaves up to 4 mm long, with a broader base. Setae straight, ca. 1.4 mm long, yellowish, twisted clockwise in the upper part when dry; capsules erect, cylindric, brownish green, smooth when dry; opercula long-rostrate, reddish brown; annuli none; stomata present; peristome teeth inserted below the mouth, divided ca. halfway down, reddish brown, striate below, papillose at the tips. Calyptrae cucullate, pale yellow, entire at base. Spores 22–25 µm in diameter, warty.

Type. Austria.

Chinese specimens examined: YUNNAN: Gong-shan Co., M.-Z. Wang 9345 (PE).

Habitat: on bases of trees; Distribution: China, Russia (Siberia), Europe, and North America.

Illustrations: Nyholm 1954 (Fig. 35, A).