Plants yellow-green to red-brown above, yellow-brown to red-brown below. Stems 1-20 cm long, sometimes producing flagellate branches with deciduous leaves, often tomentose; central strand none; hyaloderm often differentiated. Propagula often borne on short stalks in leaf axils, on leaves, or short leafless branches, multicellular, claviform to obovoid. Leaves when moist spreading to squarrose-recurved, keeled or channeled along the costa, lingulate to lanceolate, usually sheathing at base; margins recurved in the lower 1/3-3/4, dentate in the upper 1/3-1/2 or rarely throughout, sometimes bordered by 1-5 rows of thick-walled, weakly papillose cells; costa ending 1-6 cells below the apex to excurrent, not covered dorsally or ventrally by a differentiated epidermis, with 2 stereid bands (the ventral stereids sometimes poorly represented) with 2-several guide cells; upper cells sometimes bulging, subquadrate, with walls thin, evenly thickened or thickened at the corners; basal cells usually differentiated and rectangular. Perigonia below the perichaetium or terminal on separate plants. Perichaetia terminal, with high-sheathing bracts. Setae 3-30 mm long; capsules cylindric, generally straight, usually 2-3.5 mm long,erect or inclined; stomata superficial, at base of the capsule; annulus of 2-7 layers of cells, irregularly deciduous; operculum conic or conic-rostrate; peristome teeth 16, cleft to the base into linear divisions, often variously anastomosed, yellow-brown to reddish-orange, ± smooth to deeply striate, the basal membrane none or very low, sometimes with a rudimentary preperistome. Spores occasionally unequal in size. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, 2.5-4 mm long.