Plants: 3–15(–20) mm, in dense cushions, dark olive, yellow-green, or dull green to olivaceous. Leaves: broadly ovate to obovate, concave or somewhat keeled, margins plane, smooth or weakly serrate to erose distally, distal lamina mostly 1-stratose, rarely with 2-stratose streaks, specialized laminal and marginal chlorophyllose structures absent, awn short to twice lamina length, distal leaves typically with longer awns; basal cells elongate-rectangular to oblong, with straight, somewhat lax, sometimes weakly hyaline walls; mid leaf and distal cells isodiametric, oval to irregularly rhomboidal; distal cells becoming hyaline with age. Gemmae: absent. Sexual: condition autoicous or rarely cryptoicous; perichaetial leaves enlarged, long-awned. Seta: short, straight. Capsule: erect, immersed, symmetric, globose to ovoid; annulus differentiated, typically persistent; operculum conic, short to long-rostrate, falling detached from columella. Calyptra: campanulate, mitrate, sometimes erose or lobed at base, large, covering 1/2–3/4 of capsule, plicate. North America, Mexico, South America (Bolivia), c Eurasia (China, Mongolia, Russia).