Campylopus pilifer Brid., Musc. Recent. Suppl. 4: 72. 1819. Syntypes. Italy, in Insula Ischia, 1806; France, in saxosis sylvae prope Fontainebleau, 1807.

Plants small to medium, tufted, yellow-green to brownish yellow; stems variable in length, 1.0–6.5 cm long. Leaves crowded, erect-spreading when wet, appressed when dry, oblong-lanceolate, 3–6 mm long, subulate at apex and ending in a long, toothed, hyaline hair-point, to 1.9 mm long; margins subtubulose above, entire below, denticulate at apex; costa excurrent, dorsal surface with 2–6 cell high lamellae in the upper 2/3 of the leaf, in cross section with ventral hyalocysts either smaller than or distinctly larger than the guide cells, dorsal stereids well developed; upper cells oval to oblong, incrassate, not pitted, basal cells elongate-rectangular, bulging, hyaline, thin-walled; alar cells more or less quadrate in small weakly differentiated, reddish yellow groups. Setae 4–8 mm long, red-yellow, frequently aggregate from comal tufts, roughened above, smooth below; capsules erect, symmetric, cylindrical-ellipsoid, 1.0–1.5 mm long, scabrose at base, red-black; opercula short rostrate to long conic, 0.5–1.0 mm long. Calyptrae cucullate, 1.5–2.0 mm long, ciliate at base.