Dioicous. Asexual propagules absent. Turves on soil, rocks, logs or tree trunks, often in water, pale to dark green, glossy. Stems 5–30 mm long, simple or branched, dark red-brown or black toward base, with brown to red-brown rhizoids arising from leaf bases and at base, central strand absent. Leaves complanate, undulate when moist, crisped when dry; costa weak, short, forked; apex stout, abruptly apiculate, (200–) 240–300 μm long; margins ±entire or denticulate near apex, plane, with (5–)6–8 (–10) rows of more elongate cells forming a distinct border throughout; lateral leaves slightly differing from dorsal and ventral most leaves; lateral leaves asymmetric, elliptic to obovate, 2–3.2 mm long, 1.2–1.6 mm wide; dorsal and ventral leaves symmetric, broadly elliptic, 1.3–2.5 mm long, 0.6–1.3 mm wide; laminal cells in apical half away from margin hexagonal, (25–) 45–60 (–90) μm long, 22–38 μm wide, transitioning gradually into basal laminal cells; basal laminal cells away from margin oblong-hexagonal, 67–158 μm long, 18–50 μm wide. Seta 5–8 mm long, yellow-brown, papillose or less often smooth, not twisted. Capsule ellipsoid, inclined or vertical, 0.7–1.5 mm long, curved. Calyptra smooth. Operculum rostrate from conic base, 0.4–0.8 mm long.
GleP, VVP, OtP, GGr, EGL, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz. Also SA, QLD, NSW and Tas. New Zealand, southern South America, the Falkland Islands and introduced into Ireland and southern England (Smith 2004). Scattered along and south of the Great Dividing Range in moist sites, typically in gullies or close to waterways, in sclerophyll forest or in rainforest.
