Anisothecium vaginatum (Hook.) Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 12: 39. 1869. Dicranum vaginatum Hook., Musci Exot. 2: Pl. 141. 1820. Aongstroemia vaginata (Hook.) C. Müll., Syn. Musc. Frond. 2: 608. 1851. Dicranella vaginata (Hook.) Card., Wiss. Ergebn. Schwed. Südpol. Exp. 1901–1903, 4(8): 60. 1908. Type. Colombia, Humboldt & Bonpland.

Plants large for the genus, gregarious or in loose tufts, dull green to yellowish; stems slender, 15–30(–40) mm high, with a julaceous appearance due to strongly clasping leaf bases. Leaves 3–4 mm long, obovate, strongly clasping at base, abruptly narrowed above to a widely spreading to squarrose, setaceous limb about the same length as the basal part of the leaf; margins entire below, slightly serrulate at the apex; costa percurrent and nearly filling the upper limb; lower leaf cells pale, rectangular, thin-walled, those at the shoulder smaller, subquadrate to transversely elongated, incrassate. Perichaetial leaves identical to vegetative leaves except the clasping base somewhat longer. Setae 10–12 mm long, erect, weakly flexuous to straight, red; capsules 1.5 mm long, erect, oblong; stomata in 1 or 2 rows at base of capsule; opercula 1.5–1.7 mm long, long subulate-rostrate; peristome teeth 16, reddish brown below, hyaline above, densely papillose, from a low, smooth, thickly trabeculate basal membrane, deeply divided into terete forks, 250 µm long. Calyptrae smooth, entire at base, 2.0 mm long. Spores roughened, 20 µm wide.