Conostomum Sw. ex Web. & Mohr, Naturh. Reise Schwedens 122. 1804.

Plants small, in dense tufts, green to glaucous-green above, red-brown below. Stems simple or irregularly branched, hyalodermis and central strand present; rhizoids reddish, brown, smooth. Leaves imbricate, appressed in 5 distinct, spiral rows when dry, erect-appressed when wet, lanceolate, not plicate; apices acuminate; margins plane or revolute, smooth or sharply serrate above; costae subpercurrent or excurrent; upper cells smooth or papillose from the upper cell ends, rhomboidal, short-rectangular to rectangular, alar cells undifferentiated or enlarged, bulging quadrate in small groups at extreme basal angles. Autoicous or dioicous. Setae short, straight or curved. Capsules cleistocarpous or stegocarpous, exserted, oval to globose or subglobose, wrinkled to furrowed when dry; opercula conic-rostrate; peristome absent or single, with 16 short, narrowly triangular teeth united at tips. Spores reniform, smooth or coarsely papillose. Calyptrae cucullate.