Plants: glossy. Stems: prostrate or suberect, branches short, ascending. Leaves: erect, sometimes flexuose-twisted and contorted when dry, flexuose when moist, ovate-lanceolate, ligulate- to lance-acuminate, symmetric, straight, keeled; margins entire, strongly bordered, cells linear, incrassate, in several rows; costa ending before apex in distal 1/4; laminal cells usually uniformly rhomboidal to elongate-hexagonal, walls usually incrassate; basal cells sometimes rounded, longer, smooth. Sexual: condition autoicous or synoicous. Seta: roughened distally [smooth]. Capsule: erect to subinclined; exothecial cells strongly collenchymatous; exostome teeth hygrocastique (teeth incurved when dry and reflexed when moist), densely papillose, with zigzag longitudinal lines, not striate, not furrowed; endostome segments linear, narrow, same length as teeth, perforate along keel. Calyptra: smooth to somewhat roughened distally, basal fringe hairs dense. Spores: papillose. nw North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Atlantic Islands, Indian Ocean Islands, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia.