Dioicous. Asexual propagules absent. Protonema filamentous, branching. Mats on rock or soil. Stems creeping, highly branched, stoloniferous branches absent, central strand absent. Leaves spirally arranged, spreading when moist, appressed when dry, stem and branch leaves differing in size; costa absent; apex not hyaline, often with a hairpoint; margins with a distinct border of linear elongated cells or not (not in Victoria); cells away from margins linear-rhomboidal or fusiform, densely granulate; alar cells strongly differentiated, coloured, quadrate to rectangular. Acrocarpous, but appearing as if pleurocarpous. Capsules exserted. Calyptra cucullate, smooth. Operculum rostrate. Peristome absent.
Twenty-two species in southern Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, New Zealand, and some sub-Antarctic Islands, with one species in Australia and Victoria.
