Ephemerum

Dioicous or rhizautoicous. Asexual reproduction by rhizoidal tubers (not observed in Victoria). Minute ephemeral plants to 3 mm tall, scattered or gregarious on soil, on a conspicuous persistent protonema. Stem absent or reduced to a minute cluster of cells. Leaves 2–12, the outer bract-like, elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, the inner much larger, linear, lanceolate, spathulate or ligulate, erect to erect-spreading and sometimes incurved when moist, scarcely altered or contorted when dry; apex obtuse, acute or acuminate, sometimes with a hairpoint; costa completely absent (not in Victoria), absent at base and otherwise rudimentary and subpercurrent to excurrent, or prominent throughout and subpercurrent to excurrent, narrow or nearly as wide as leaf (not in Victoria), homogenous in cross-section; margin entire, serrulate, serrate or dentate, or laciniate, plane, without a border; laminal cells rectangular, rhomboid or elongate-hexagonal, smooth or prorate. Acrocarpous. Capsule erect, straight, globose, ovoid or ellipsoid, immersed, cleistocarpous, apiculate, without an annulus. Calyptra mitrate or sometimes cucullate, papillose (not in Victoria) or smooth. Peristome absent.