Mesochaete

Dioicous. Asexual propagules absent. Mats on soil or rocks. Stems simple to sparingly branched, tomentose at base; central strand present. Leaves ovate or fiddle-shaped, complanate, 4-ranked, monomorphic, erect-spreading when moist, crisped when dry, imbricate, asymmetric; apex rounded to acute; costa strong, excurrent and merging with border to form a toothed apiculus, dividing the leaf unequally; margins serrate at least toward apex, with single teeth, undulate, with a distinct multistratose border of more elongated; laminal cells isodiametric in apical half, irregularly hexagonal to quadrate, becoming more elongate toward base, smooth; alar cells not differentiated. Pleurocarpous, perichaetia in leaf axils around mid-stem. Capsules erect to inclined, curved, cylindric, strongly sulcate when mature. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, glabrous. Operculum conic or rostrate. Peristome double; endostome of 16 segments equal in height to exostome, with a basal membrane c. half height of exostome teeth; cilia present.