Family: Pottiaceae

Kingdom: Plantae Rank: Family Parent: Pottiales Status: Valid

Common Names:

  • Pottiaceae - English, United States of America

Morphological Description

Diagnosis: Plants small to robust, usually caespitose, dull, usually green above, brown, yellow-brown or reddish below. Stems generally erect, occasionally tomentose. Leaves usually larger and more crowded at the stem tip, often contorted when dry, spreading when moist, lanceloate or sometimes oval to ligulate, the base often differentiated; margins usually entire, often revolute; costa single, ending at or near the apex; upper cells occasionally bistratose, small, subquadrate, usually papillose, occasionally mammillose-bulging; basal cells usually enlarged, often thin-walled. Setae usually elongate; capsules usually erect and symmetric, spherical, ovoid or cylindric; annulus often differentiated; operculum conic to rostrate; peristome generally present, consisting of 32 filiform divisions or 16 various perforate or cleft teeth. Calyptra nearly always cucullate, smooth or rarely roughened, naked. Spores mostly spherical, finely papillose.