Dioicous. Plants small, to 8 mm tall, loosely caespitose, dull brownish or yellow-green. Stems with a weak central strand and a weakly differentiated hyalodermis. Rhizoids moderately dense at base, weakly papillose, reddish brown. Leaves suberect, with an oblong to obovate hyaline sheathing base and a linear-lanceolate green upper lamina, to 2.0–5.5 mm long, 0.375–0.500 mm wide; margin plane, upper margin denticulate (single or double teeth); costa strong, not prominent abaxially, with a strong abaxial stereid band and no adaxial band; axillary hairs to c. 225 µm long, usually with 2 short basal cells with pigmented cross-walls and 1–5 elongate hyaline cells; upper lamina bistratose, with cells 25–50 × 7.5–10.0 µm, strongly papillose with high ‘twinned’ papillae (formed from the combined prorate ends of adjacent cells); lower lamina unistratose, lacking shorter quadrate cells at the alar margin, with cells elongate, to c. 200 × 17.5 µm.

Setae 5–10 mm long. Capsules suberect to inclined, subglobose, c. 1.5 mm long and 1 mm wide, sulcate when dry; exothecial cells usually hexagonal, with prominent trigones c. 30 × 20 µm. Peristome absent or, occasionally, a short membrane. Spores subglobose, 50–55 µm diameter, reddish brown, densely verrucose.

This is sometimes difficult to distinguish from B. robusta, but it is usually smaller, often glaucous and has an oblong leaf base that is neither geniculate nor as broadened at the shoulders as in B. robusta. Moreover, the latter has a peristome, although immature capsules must be examined as the peristome of B. robusta seems to be fragile and soon lost.

Endemic.

Endemic to Australia, occurring in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania. Bartramia hampeana subsp. hampeana is endemic to South Africa.

Moderately common in dry, lowland or montane habitats.

Bartramidula hampei Mitt., Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria 19: 68 (1882); Bartramia hampei (Mitt.) Catches., Mosses of South Australia 281 (1980). Bartramia hampeana Müll.Hal., Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 16: 162 (1858) subsp. hampei (Mitt.) Fransén, Lindbergia 29: 90 (2004).
Type: Mt William, Grampians, Vic., D.Sullivan s.n.; holo: BM; iso: MEL? n.v.

Taxonomic synonyms

Glyphocarpa erecta Hampe, Linnaea 40: 305 (1876); Bartramia erecta (Hampe) Broth., Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3: 637 (1904), nom. illeg. non Mitten (1869).
Type: Mt William, Grampians, Vic., D.Sullivan s.n.; holo: BM; iso: MEL? n.v.

Bartramia gymnostoma Broth. ex Watts & Whitel., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 30 (Suppl.): 151 (1906), nom. nud. Based on: Koorawatha, N.S.W., W.W.Watts 7308 (NSW), fide annotations by Brotherus on specimen packet.

Possible synonym

?Bartramia papillata Hook.f. & Wilson var. brevifolia Broth. & Geh., nom. nud. [Watts & Whitelegge, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, 30 (Suppl.): 152 (1906)]. Based on: summit of Mt Koscius[z]ko, N.S.W., D.Sullivan (MEL?).

W.A.: foot of Bluff Knoll, Stirling Range, D.G.Catcheside 74.292 (AD).

S.A.: Yanagin Rd, near Greenhill, D.G.Catcheside 80.35 (AD).

N.S.W.: 3 miles [c. 4.9 km] S of Jenolan Caves, J.M.Glime 7928 (AD, CANB).

A.C.T.: Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, H.Streimann 2550 (CANB).

Vic.: Mirranatawa Gap, Grampians, D.G.Catcheside 77.211 (AD).

Tas.: Ridgeway Park, A.V.Ratkowsky H610 (HO).

D.G.Catcheside, Mem. New York Bot. Gard., fig. 167, pl. 11A (1987), as B. hampei; S.Fransén, Lindbergia 91, fig. 9 (2004).

Bell, G.H. (2012). Australian Mosses Online. 42. Bartramiaceae: Bartramia. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/Bartramiaceae_Bartramia.pdf 

First published as:  Bell, G.H. (2006). Bartramia in Bartramiaceae, Flora of Australia Volume 51. (Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne).