Plants ca. 1--1.5 cm ´ 2--3 mm, ascending, yellowish-green to reddish-brown. Stems 0.2--0.5 mm in diam., sparsely branching with Frullania-type, Radula-type and lateral-intercalary; transverse section with 1--3 elongated cortical cells and 10--16 medullary cells; rhizoids moderately numerous, colorless. Leaves transversely inserted, symmetrical, variously wider or narrower than long, broadly quadrate, ca. 1.7--2 ´ 1.4--1.7 mm, 3 or 2--4-lobed, sinus very shallow (0.1--0.25 of the leaf length), apex obtuse to rounded, margins entire; cells rounded-polygonal, marginal cells 15--25 ´ 25--35 m m, median cells 25--30 ´ 45--50 m m, basal cells 35--45 ´ 70--100 m m, cuticle weakly verruculose, walls thin, trigones large; oil bodies 2--12 per cell, spherical to ellipsoidal, ca. 5--10 m m, granular, grayish; underleaves absent. Specialized asexual reproduction by gemmae in masses at tips of leaf-lobes, yellow-brown to purplish, smooth or angulate, elliptical, ca. 28 m m, 1--2-celled. Sexual condition dioicous. Androecia terminal, male bracts, several pairs, similar to leaves, 3-lobed, lobes undulate. Seta 1--2 cm, capsule ovoid, exterior walls with nodular thickenings, interior walls with semiannular thickenings. Elaters ca. 8 m m in diam., 2-spiral, reddish-brown. Spores ca. 15 m m, reddish-brown.

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora): North America, Europe, Asia.

Lower Taxa

• Tritomaria polita subsp. polita
• Tritomaria polita subsp. polymorpha R. M. Schuster