Plants tufted. Stems 10–45 mm tall, yellow-green to dark brown-red. Leaves oblong to linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 2.2–3.2 mm long, 0.5–1.0 mm wide; upper laminal cells long-hexagonal to rhomboidal, 30–120 × 14–25 µm; basal cells rectangular, 95–165 × 14–25 µm.

Perichaetial bracts broadly ovate, tapering to a hairpoint. Setae to 3 cm long, smooth, ±slightly twisted below capsule. Exostome teeth trabeculate, triangular-lanceolate, papillose; endostome with 2 or 3 papillose cilia. Spores 9–16 µm diam.

The species occurs in south-eastern N.S.W., Vic., and Tas.; also known from New Zealand, the Pacific islands and South America. Grows in moist areas on soil, wood, tree ferns and, rarely, on rocks.

Goniobryum subbasilare (Hook.) Lindb., Öfvers. Förh. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. 21: 607 (1865); Hypnum subbasilare Hook., Musci Exot. t. 10 (1818); Rhizogonium subbasilare (Hook.) Schimp., Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 5: 803 (1847); Trachyloma subbasilare (Hook.) Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 4: 86 (1860).
Type: Staten Is., near Cape Horn, A.Menzies 24; holotype: BM.

Photinophyllum pellucidum Mitt., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 10: 175 (1868); Rhizogonium pellucidum (Mitt.) A.Jaeger, Ber. Tatigk. St. Gallischen Naturwiss. Ges. 1873–74: 221 (1875); Goniobryum pellucidum (Mitt.) Broth., Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3: 621 (1904). Type: ‘Western Rivulet’, Tas., W.Archer; syn: NY n.v.; Australia, F.Mueller n.v.; New Zealand, C.Knight 139; syntype: BM.

Rhizogonium reticulatum Hampe, Linnaea 30: 636 (1860). Type: Apollo Bay, [Vic.]; n.v.

N.S.W.: Macquarie Rd, H.Streimann 48927 [Musci Australas. Exsicc. 72] (CANB); Monga, 20 km SE of Braidwood, H.Streimann 5139 (CANB).

Vic.: Results Ck, H.Streimann 36533 (CANB); Sassafras Ck, H.Streimann 39910 (CANB).

Tas.: Upper Browns R., A.V.Ratkowsky H244 (CANB).

This species can be readily identified by the spotted appearance of its dry or recently wetted leaves due to the aggregation of chloroplasts at either end of the laminal cells. Cells at the edge of the leaves are thinner than other laminal cells, but they do not form a distinct border. The calyptra is very long (c. 2 mm), has an entire base and usually a thin, tubular structure; however, it can sometimes form a bubble-like base.

G.A.M.Scott & I.G.Stone, The Mosses of Southern Australia 319, pl. 58 (1976).

S.R.Gilmore (2012), Australian Mosses Online 36. Rhizogoniaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 7 June 2012.

First published as:  S.R.Gilmore (2006), Rhizogoniaceae, Fl. Australia 51: 354–366. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.