Plants: small, in mats, pale green, dark green, or brownish. Stems: freely branched to subpinnate; paraphyllia few, linear-lanceolate, cells smooth; sparsely radiculose. Stem: and branch leaves similar or differentiated. Stem: leaves erect or somewhat recurved when dry, erect-spreading when moist, oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, plicate on one side, 2-plicate, or plane; margins plane or ± recurved proximally, entire to subserrulate distally, limbidium absent; apex acute, acuminate, or obtuse, hair-point absent; costa single, subpercurrent or ending before apex, opaque, often flexuose-curved distally; alar cells weakly differentiated, subquadrate; medial and distal laminal cells irregularly quadrate-hexagonal, ± 1-papillose on abaxial or both surfaces, walls thick; apical cells ± quadrate except at very tip. : Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Sexual: condition autoicous; perichaetial leaves pale brown, erect, elongate, apex acuminate. Seta: 0.4–1.2 cm. Capsule: erect, cylindric to oblong-cylindric, symmetric to distinctly curved; annulus narrow or absent; operculum conic; peristome reduced; exostome teeth linear-lanceolate, usually cross striolate near base, sometimes densely papillose throughout; endostome basal membrane low, segments long-linear, cilia absent or rudimentary. Spores: 9–18 µm, smooth to very finely papillose. North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa.

Species 24 (4 in the flora). Leskea occurs in terrestrial habitats in temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions. The leaves are somewhat asymmetric with proximal laminal cells somewhat longer than the more distal cells, which are obscure; the exostome teeth are incurved when dry; and the endostome is erect, pale, and papillose.