Schistidium

Autoicous or rarely dioicous (not in Victoria). Asexual propagules absent. Cushions, tufts, mats or turves on rocks, trees or soil (not in Victoria). Stems erect, frequently subapically branched, with scattered rhizoids near base or stem and branches; central strand present or absent. Leaves ovate, lanceolate or rarely oblong, erecto-patent to wide-spreading when moist, appressed when dry, sometimes falcate-secund, arranged around stem and facing all direction or rarely in three spiral rows (not in Victoria); apices obtuse, acute or acuminate, with or without a hyaline hair-point; hairpoint smooth (not in Victoria) or denticulate; costae subpercurrent to excurrent; margins entire or dentate near apex, recurved, rarely plane throughout (not in Victoria) or incurved (not in Victoria), without a border; laminal cells quadrate, ovate or rectangular, smooth or papillose, with straight to sinuose walls, unistratose or bistratose at margin or in streaks or patches or throughout in apical half; alar cells not clearly differentiated. Acrocarpous. Seta straight, smooth. Capsules immersed, erect, symmetric, cylindric to campanulate or cup-shaped, with a rudimentary annulus or annulus absent. Calyptra cucullate or mitrate, not fully covering operculum, smooth. Operculum rostrate from hemispheric base, usually remaining attached to columella once dehisced. Peristome of 16 entire or variously perforated well-developed teeth, rarely rudimentary (not in Victoria) or absent (not in Victoria).