Autoicous, less commonly paroicous, rarely synoicous or polygamous. Plants minute to medium-sized, lacking a persistent protonema, growing on soil, usually gregarious. Stems unbranched or branched sympodially by innovations, rarely forked, not forming rhizomes, usually reddish brown and with a central strand, 1–4 thick-walled cortical cell layers and a hyaloderm (T.S.). Rhizoids smooth, reddish brown, rarely cerise and rarely bearing tubers. Leaves usually larger and more crowded above, soft, concave or less commonly plane, erect-spreading or, rarely, erect, usually obovate, less often elliptic, lanceolate or subulate, entire or serrate by projecting cell ends, rarely ciliate, acuminate to obtuse; costa single, usually strong, protruding on the abaxial surface, with a small (rarely large) central stereid group surrounded by 1 abaxial and 1 or 2 adaxial layers of larger cells. Laminal cells smooth, large, thin-walled and oblong-hexagonal, rarely firm-walled and oblong, usually thinner-walled and more oblong below, occasionally narrowly oblong at the margins and forming a border. Axillary filaments present, with elongate-cylindrical terminal cells.

Perigonium terminal, usually single, rarely lacking, with multicellular paraphyses that have globose or pyriform yellowish terminal cells. Perichaetial shoot arising by subperigonial innovation and overtopping the perigonium; perichaetium terminal, lacking differentiated paraphyses. Calyptra deciduous or persistent, usually smooth, rarely papillose, mitrate or cucullate, usually strongly rostrate and inflated at the base, rarely angled or pleated. Capsules immersed to long-exserted, erect or curved, often strongly asymmetrical, operculate or not, usually with a distinct neck; stomata present, restricted to the neck, consisting of an elongate pore in a single guard cell (‘doughnut’ stomata), immersed or superficial; annulus present or absent; exothecial cells thin-or thick-walled; radial walls occasionally cuneate in cross-section. Peristome single, double, rudimentary or absent; exostome teeth sigmoid or straight, sometimes apically fused as a latticed disc, papillose-striolate or striate, trabeculate on the adaxial surface; endostome lacking cilia; segments coherent at the base, opposite the teeth, acute or irregular, papillose-striolate or papillose. Spores small (c. 10 µm) to very large (c. 80–90 µm), subreniform or, rarely, ellipsoidal, reddish or golden-brown, variously ornamented.

Funariaceae is characterised by gametophyte characters such as autoicous or paroicous sexuality, usually obovate leaves with thin-walled non-ornamented cells and perigonial paraphyses with inflated terminal cells. Distinctive sporophytic attributes include the ‘doughnut’ stomata enclosed by a single guard cell, endostome segments lying opposite the exostome teeth, and a usually inflated calyptra.

Funariaceae Schwägr., Species Muscorum Frondosorum 43 (1830), as Funariae. Type: Funaria Hedw.

Brotherus, V.F. (1924). Funariaceae, in Engler, H.G.A. & Prantl, K.A.E. Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, 2nd edn, 10: 320–332.

Catcheside, D.G. (1980). Mosses of South Australia, pp. 218–239. (South Australian Govt. Printing: Adelaide.)

Fife A.J. (1982). A Generic Revision of the Funariaceae (Bryophyta: Musci). PhD Thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Fife, A.J. (1985). A generic revision of the Funariaceae (Bryophyta: Musci), Part 1. Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory 58: 149–196.

Fife, A.J. & Seppelt, R.D. (2001). A revision of the family Funariaceae (Musci) in Australia. Hikobia 13: 473–490.

Goffinet, B., Shaw, A.J. & Buck, W.R. (2012). Classification of the Bryophyta. Available at: https://bryology.uconn.edu/classification/ [Accessed 2012]

Magill, R.E. (1987). Flora of Southern Africa: Bryophyta, Part 1 Mosses, Fascicle 2. Gigaspermaceae–Bartramiaceae. (Botanical Research Institute, Department of Agriculture and Water Supply: Pretoria.)

Sainsbury, G.O.K. (1955). A handbook of the New Zealand Mosses. Bulletin of the Royal Society of New Zealand 5: 1–490.

Scott, G.A.M. & Stone, I.G. (1976). The Mosses of Southern Australia. (Academic Press: London.)

Sim, T.R. (1926). The bryophytes of South Africa, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa 15: 1–475.

Fife, A.J. & Seppelt, R.D. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 67. Funariaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 2 October 2012.