Schlotheimia Bridel, Musc. Recent. Suppl. 2: 16. 1812.
[For Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim (1764--1832), a paleontologist held in high regard by Bridel]
Dale H. Vitt
Plants medium-sized, in dense, tomentose, usually reddish-brown mats on trees. Stems creeping, with numerous, ascending, stout, usually forked branches up to 2 cm high. Branch leaves appressed to loosely-appressed, erect, often spirally-twisted around stem when dry, narrowly lanceolate to oblong-ligulate, usually acute, apiculate or long-cuspidate, sometimes rugose; margins entire; costa strong, excurrent or ending at apex; distal laminal cells small, rarely greater than 10 µm, rounded, thick-walled, usually smooth; basal laminal cells elongate, porose. Sexual condition pseudautoicous, dwarf male plants on leaves of female plant. Seta smooth. Capsule fully exserted, rarely immersed; elliptic to cylindric, erect, usually smooth or lightly plicate; stomates superficial; peristome double; endostome segments 16, shorter than exostome, pale sometimes rudimentary; exostome teeth 16, well-developed, linear-lanceolate, often blunt, erect or recurved, thick densely papillose-striate. Calyptra mitrate, long-conic to campanulate, 4--6 lobed at base, naked or hairy, usually covering entire capsule. Spores anisosmorphic.
Species 100--150 (2 in the flora); pantropical; Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, Australia, Pacific Islands (New Zealand).
The distinctive dark-reddish coloration, habit in tree canopies and on tree trunks, and 4--6 lobed, campanulate calyptra are diagnostic features of this genus.
