LEUCOBRYACEAE
白发藓科 bai-fa xian ke
by Lin Bang-juan and Si He
Plants whitish, grayish or bluish green, in dense cushions. Stems erect, simple or branched. Leaves arranged in several rows, thick, fleshy, linear, ligulate or lanceolate from a rather narrow to somewhat broad base; costa broad, filling most of leaf base and apex, in cross section with 2 to 10 layers of large, empty, hyaline and porose cells (leucocysts), enclosing a single, more or less median layer of smaller green cells (chlorocysts) (except in Exostratum where chlorocysts are arranged in three layers); laminae very narrow, consisting of delicate, hyaline, oblong and linear cells, often restricted to leaf base or extending somewhat above the shoulders as a very narrow, inconspicuous border. Dioicous or pseudoautoicous. Setae terminal, usually elongate, straight; capsules erect, symmetric or inclined, asymmetric, often strumose at base; peristome single, consisting of 8 or 16 lanceolate teeth, undivided or bifid, smooth or papillose, or vertically pitted-striolate; opercula conic-rostrate with a long beak. Calyptrae mostly cucullate. Spores small, spherical.