Plants pale green to golden-green, scattered or gregarious on an extensive pale green protonema. Leaves 6–10, the perichaetial leaves spathulate, narrowly lanceolate or oblong, 1.0–1.5 mm long, 0.2–0.4 mm wide, often cristate on distal abaxial surface; apex obtuse-mucronate, acute or acuminate; margin above mid-leaf deeply laciniate, dentate-ciliate with sharp or rounded teeth; costa rudimentary, usually 2 or 3 cells wide, failing below apex or excurrent in a long awn, absent below; laminal cells rectangular to rhomboidal, smooth or prorate, firm to thick-walled, 30–200 × 12–25 μm.

Calyptra campanulate; cells smooth or tumid. Capsules bright or rusty red. Spores globose or reniform, 40–90 µm, reddish brown.

Distinguished from E. fimbriatum by the marginal laciniae composed of compound, antler-like teeth and the narrow, rudimentary costa usually with numerous abaxial spines in the upper half of the leaf.

Native.

Known from all States and Territories except Australian Capital Territory. Originally thought to be endemic, but recently reported from Iraq (Aziz 2011).

Widespread except in montane areas and the far north; grows on damp earth along watercourses or in protected gorges in desert areas.

Phascum cristatum Hook.f. & Wilson, in J.D.Hooker, Icon. Pl. Rar. 8: 737A (1845); Ephemerum cristatum (Hook.f. & Wilson) Müll.Hal., Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 5: 101 (1847). Type: Swan River, W.A., J.Drummond; lecto: BM, fide I.G.Stone, J. Bryol. 19: 283 (1996); isolecto: BM.

Taxonomic synonym

Ephemerum grosseciliatum Müll.Hal., Hedwigia 37: 77 (1898). Type: near Melbourne, Vic., 5 July 1884; F.M.Reader; lecto: MEL, fide I.G.Stone, J. Bryol. 19: 283 (1996).

W.A.: 6.5 km W of Hopetoun, A.C.Beauglehole 14723 (MEL).

N.T.: Rabbit Flat, Tanami Track, I.G.Stone 16220 (MEL).

S.A.: N of Donovans Landing, A.C.Beauglehole 16230 (MEL).

Qld: Coominglah, I.G.Stone 21134 (MEL).

N.S.W.: 44 km S of Dubbo, I.G.Stone 4645 (MEL).

Vic.: Whipstick area, Bendigo, I.G.Stone 398 (MEL).

Tas.: Brooks Field, R.A.Bastow (MEL).

G.A.M.Scott & I.G.Stone, The Mosses of Southern Australia 266, pl. 49 (1976); D.G.Catcheside, Mosses of South Australia 240, fig. 137 (1980); I.G.Stone, J. Bryol. 19: 282, fig. 1; 283, fig. 2 (1996).

Aziz, F.H. (2011). Seventeen spp. new moss records for the flora of Iraq. International Journal of Experimental Botany 80: 35–46.

Stone, I.G. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 41. Ephemeraceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 9 June 2012. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/41_Ephemeraceae.html

First published as: Stone, I.G. (2006). Ephemeraceae, in McCarthy, P.M. (ed.) Flora of Australia 51: 163–167. (Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.)