Catagonium nitens subsp. nitens

Mats on soil or rocks, rarely tree ferns and tree bases. Stems 3–10 cm long, suberect or prostrate, simple or irregularly branched, orange to brown, with sparse brown rhizoids at base, with branches 1–2.5 mm long. Leaves erect spreading, scarcely altered when dry, oblong-ovate, 1–1.8 mm long, 0.3–0.6 mm wide, becoming smaller at branch apices, conduplicate, lustrous; apices acuminate or cuspidate, straight to decurved; costae usually absent or if present, indistinct, short and double; margins entire, plane, without a border; midlaminal cells linear, 85–160 μm long, 3–4 μm  wide, becoming shorter and wider at extreme base and apex but not clearly differentiated, otherwise, similar throughout, smooth. Setae 12–34 mm long, reddish, often becoming yellow toward capsule, smooth, twisted anticlockwise. Capsules inclined, oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm long, brown, sometimes slightly curved. Operculum rostrate from conic base, 0.7–1.3 mm long.