Plants 0.5–7.5 cm tall, pale to bright green. Rhizoidal gemmae frequent in smaller plants. Leaves falcate-secund, ovate-linear to triangular-linear, gradually long-acuminate, (2.7–) 3.0–12.4 mm long, 0.5–1.6 mm wide, flat to canaliculate below, V-shaped above, plicate; margin serrate in the upper 40–75 %; border consisting of 1–4 cell rows, reaching to well within the serrate part of the margin, occasionally reduced or lacking; costa subpercurrent, abaxially with 2–4 rows of teeth in the distal 50–80 %; guide cells 5–8 (–11), adaxially with 2 or 3 layers of stereids, often with a large-lumened cell adjacent to the guide cells, abaxially with 3–5 bundles of stereids separated by large-lumened cells. Upper laminal cells conspicuously shorter than basal ones, oblong to linear, (8–) 10–95 (–115) µm long, not or shallowly pitted, descending along the costa to form occasionally conspicuous juxtacostal bands.

Innermost perichaetial leaf with a hair-like point. Sporogones 1–10 per perichaetium; seta 4.5–27.5 mm long; capsules curved; annulus revoluble.

n = 7, fide Ramsay (1985: 110) and Ramsay (2006: 311).

Occurs in north-eastern and south-eastern Queensland, the tablelands of New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania. Also in Lord Howe Island, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan.

Dicranum dicarpum Nees, in C.P.J. Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 4(2): 322 (1827); Leucoloma dicarpum (Nees) Broth., in H.G.A.Engler & K.A.E.Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3: 322 (1901); Dicranoloma dicarpum (Nees) Paris, Index Bryol. 2nd edn, 2: 26 (1904). Type: Australia, F.W. Sieber 10; LE (Hb. Nees); n.v.; iso: L, MO, NY.

Dicranum dicarpum var. spinosum Wilson, in J.D. Hooker, Fl. Nov.-Zel. 2: 66 (1854); Dicranoloma dicarpum var. spinosum (Wilson) Paris, Index Bryol. 2nd edn, 2: 26 (1904). Type: Ship Cove, South Island, New Zealand, D. Lyall 26; lecto: BM-Wilson, fide N. Klazenga, op. cit. 442 (2003); isolecto: BM-Hooker; syn: “East Coast”, New Zealand, W.Colenso 157 (BM-Hooker, BM-Wilson).

Dicranum argutum Hampe, Linnaea 36: 516 (1870); Leucoloma argutum (Hampe) Broth., in H.G.A. Engler & K.A.E. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3: 322 (1901); Dicranoloma argutum (Hampe) Paris, Index Bryol. 2nd edn, 2: 24 (1904). Type: s. loc., N.S.W., Hook s.n.; holo: BM-Hampe.

Dicranum polychaetum Mitt., Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria 19: 52 (1882); Dicranum polysetum Hampe, Linnaea 30: 629 (1860), nom. illeg. (later homonym); Leucoloma polysetum Broth., in H.G.A. Engler & K.A.E. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3: 322 (1901), nom. illeg. (superfluous); Dicranoloma polysetum Paris, Index Bryol. 2nd edn, 2: 29 (1904), nom. illeg. (superfluous); Dicranoloma polychaetum (Mitt.) Watts & Whitel., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 30 (Suppl.): 162 (1906). Type: sources of the [River] Yarra, Vic., F. Mueller s.n.; lecto: BM, fide N. Klazenga, loc. cit.; isolecto: MEL 1040641; syn: Victoria Ra., Grampians, Vic., F. Mueller [3] (MEL 1002531).

Dicranum whiteleggei Müll.Hal. ex Broth., Öfvers. Förh. Finska Vetensk.-Soc. 37: 150 (1895); Leucoloma whiteleggei (Müll.Hal. ex Broth.) Paris, Index Bryol., Suppl. 1: 234 (1900); Dicranoloma whiteleggei (Müll.Hal. ex Broth.) Paris, Index Bryol. 2nd edn, 2: 31 (1904). Type: Fitzroy Falls, Moss Vale, N.S.W., T. Whitelegge; holo: H-BR; iso: NSW 295114.

?Dicranum chlorocladum Müll.Hal. ex Geh., Hedwigia 36: 362 (1897); Leucoloma chlorocladum (Müll.Hal. ex Geh.) Broth., in H.G.A. Engler & K.A.E. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3: 322 (1901); Dicranoloma chlorocladum (Müll.Hal. ex Geh.) Paris, Index Bryol. 2nd edn, 2: 25 (1904). Type: Sydney, N.S.W., Mrs Kaysser; not located.

Dicranum novae-hollandiae Hornsch. ex Cardot, Bull. Herb. Boissier, sér. 2, 8: 173 (1908), nom. illeg. (later homonym). Type: s. loc., [Australia], F.W. Sieber 7; holo: PC.

Dicranoloma elimbatum Dixon, Proc. Roy Soc. Queensland 53(2): 26 (1941). Type: Duma Creek, Ravenshoe, Qld, T.V. Sherrin 10; holo: BM.

Qld: Tumouline State Forest, 6 km N of Ravenshoe, H. Streimann 46122 (CANB, NY); Forest Glen, 8 km SE of Nambour along Bruce Hwy, D. Verdon 5210 (CANB, H, L, NY).

N.S.W.: Mt Warning, 14 km SW of Murwillumbah, H. Streimann 288 (CANB, L); c. 1 mile [1.6 km] W of Point Lookout, New England National Park, R.D. Hoogland 8582 (CANB, L, MEL).

A.C.T.: Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, 25 km SW of Canberra, H. Streimann 1414 (CANB, L, NY).

Vic.: Bonjimma Track, Grampians National Park, Fifth Australasian Bryophyte Workshop (MEL 2053571); Gunmark Rd, 0.8 km from Errinundra Rd, Errinundra Plateau, K.R. Thiele 1046 (CANB, MEL).

Tas.: Warners Sugarloaf, 18.5 km S of Deloraine, J.A. Curnow 1980 (CANB, HO, NY); Wedge Trail, Gordon River Rd, Southwest National Park, N. Klazenga 5589 (MEL).

Australian specimens of D. dicarpum exhibit considerable variation in size. Although this variation is not strictly geographically correlated, specimens from Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand tend to have longer leaves and setae, while those from New South Wales and Queensland have shorter organs. This coincides with a reduction in the number of setae per perichaetium from as many as 10 in Tasmania and New Zealand to 1 or 2 in Queensland, and with a change in shape of the capsule, viz. curved in Tasmania and New Zealand, almost straight in Queensland. Gemmae are much more common in smaller plants and have not been found on specimens from Tasmania or New Zealand.

N. Klazenga, Australian Systematic Botany 16: 443, fig. 11a–l (2003).

Klazenga, N. (2003). A revision of the Australasian species of Dicranoloma (Bryophyta, Dicranaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 16: 427–471.

Klazenga, N. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 33. Dicranaceae. (Australian Biological Resources Study: Canberra). Version 30 May 2012; https://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/33_Dicranaceae.html [Accessed July 2019]

Ramsay, H.P. (1985). Cytological and sexual characteristics of the moss Dicranoloma, in Crosby, M.R. (ed.), Studies in systematic botany dedicated to Lewis Anderson, Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 2: 93–110.

Ramsay, H.P. (2006). Chromosome numbers in some species of Dicranoloma from Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Telopea 11: 308–313.

Klazenga, N. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 33. Dicranaceae. (Australian Biological Resources Study: Canberra). Version 30 May 2012; https://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/33_Dicranaceae.html [Accessed July 2019]