Hypnaceae

Diagnosis: Plants small to medium-sized, pale- to yellow-green. Stems creeping, irregularly but freely branched, ± complanate-foliate. Stem and branch leaves similar, sometimes complanate, erect-spreading, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.5-1.4 mm long, gradually acuminate, often long-acuminate, the apex sometimes twisted; margins often entire, sometimes minutely serrulate, plane; costa short and double, often absent; cells linear, ± straight, smooth, thin-walled, not porose, becoming shorter, broader and laxer in 1-3 rows across the insertion; alat cells few but often conspicuous, in basal angles, quadrate to subquadrate. Seta elongate, smooth, orange to reddish, 0.5-2.2 cm long; capsules inclined to pendent, ± arcuate, asymmetric, short-cylindric, constricted below the mouth when dry; exostome teeth shouldered, bordered, on the front surface cross-srtiolate below, coarsely papillose above. Spores finely papillose, 9-24 µm in diameter.

Distribution: Eastern North America, Mexico and Central America, South America, Caribbean region; Europe

Ecology: Growing on most substrates, especially rotten wood and the bases of trees in a wide range of habitats.

Basionym: Hypnum tenerum Sw.

Basionym Citation: Flora Indiae Occidentalis 3: 1817. 1806.