Breutelia pilifera Allen & Griffin, Novon 9: 1. 1999.

Protologue: Costa Rica. Cartago: Tapantí Forest Reserve ca. 25 kms. southeast of Cartago. Griffin & Eakin 196 (F, FLAS, MO, NY, US). 

Plants medium-sized to large-sized, in loose, glossy, yellowish‑green tufts, to 7 cm high. Stems red, hyalodermis and central strand present, densely tomentose below; rhizoids reddish brown, smooth. Leaves 3–4 mm long, widely spaced, spreading from base, stiffly erect-incurved above, erect-spreading when wet, straight, occasionally falcate, ovate-lanceolate, leaf base entirely orange to reddish yellow, not or weakly plicate, not decurrent; apices not twisted when dry, long, slenderly acuminate; margins plane to narrowly recurved at midleaf, serrulate; costa long-excurrent into a long, naked awn, 0.6–0.8 mm long; leaf cells straight-walled, strongly papillose from the upper end, upper cells linear-elongate, firm‑walled, 30–50 x 2.5–3.7 μm, lower cells linear-elongate, 55–75 x 2.5–3.7 μm, firm-walled, alar region with small cluster (8–15) of enlarged, thin-walled cells at basal angle. Dioicous. Perigonia discoid. Setae flexuose, 25–30 mm long. Capsules inclined, asymmetric, 2.5–3 mm long, subglobose, furrowed when dry, striate when wet; exothecial cells firm- to thick-walled; stomata immersed, numerous at base; opercula plano-convex; exostome teeth red, narrowly triangular, finely papillose below, coarsely papillose near tips, dorsal trabeculae faint, ventral trabeculae strongly thickened, endostome segments broad, yellow, papillose, segments split along the median line and each half diverging toward the cilia, cilia rudimentary, 0–2. Spores reniform, 17–23 μm, faintly papillose, pale yellow.