Tuerckheimia is a genus of small to medium-sized mosses, with a light green to glaucous color and terminal perichaetia. It has plane leaf margins, homogeneous upper leaf cells with massive, multiplex papillae, and weakly differentiated basal leaf cells. Unlike the massive multiplex papillae found in Trichostomum the leaf cell papillae in Tuerckheimia are centered over the cell lumina and so the cellular areolation is not strongly obscured. The costa in Tuerckheimia has two stereid bands and differentiated ventral surface cells. Although most Tuerckheimia species are eperistomate, the capsules of the type species have a rudimentary basal membrane. Zander (1993) considered the genus close to Trichostomum which differs in having thinner-walled basal leaf cells and low, flat, papillae that cover the entire cell lumen and are contiguous from cell to cell, thus obscuring the areolation pattern. Tuerckheimia has been placed in the Pleuroweisieae (Saito 1975, Crum & Anderson 1981, Zander 1994a) where it can difficult to separate from Gymnostomum or Molendoa. From Gymnostomum it differs by its massive papillae which are centered over the leaf cell lumina. In Central America Molendoa often has massive bulging papillae, but that genus differs from Tuerckheimia in having lateral perichaetia, more heterogeneous upper leaf cells, basal leaf cells near the costa at times porose, and papillae that are not centered over the cell lumina.  Zander (1978c) provided a synopsis of the genus.