Named in honour of the German botanist Johann Hedwig (1730–99).

From Hedwigia ciliata:

Plants brown below, olive-green to pale green above, often with an overall whitish tinge due to the hyaline leaf apices. Stems intertwined, richly branched, to c. 4 cm long; stoloniferous stems absent. Leaves imbricate, erecto-patent when dry, erect-spreading to spreading when moist, ovate to oblong-ovate, 1.42–1.87 mm long, 0.71–0.98 mm wide; apex acuminate, hyaline; margin slightly recurved below, entire to lightly denticulate at the apex. Mid-leaf laminal cells isodiametric, c. 10 µm wide, each with 1 or 2 branching papillae; central basal cells elongate, orange-yellow, porose, thick-walled, with a row of simple papillae.

Perichaetia terminal; petichaetial leaves oblong, larger than stem leaves; apex acuminate and hyaline; upper margin with filamentous cilia; upper laminal cells like those of the stem leaves; lower laminal cells elongate, porose, smooth, incrassate. Seta usually absent, otherwise very short. Capsule ovoid, with a wide mouth and a short cylindrical neck; mouth often splitting with age; operculum with a small apiculus. Spores ovoid, c. 26 µm long, finely papillose.

There is only one species in Australia, Hedwigia ciliata.

Hedwigia P.Beauv., Mag. Encycl. 5: 304 (1804), nom. cons. Type: H. ciliata (Hedw.) P.Beauv.

Hedenäs, L. (1994). The Hedwigia ciliata complex in Sweden with notes on the occurrence of the taxa in Fennoscandia, Journal of Bryology 18: 139–157.

Gilmore, S.R. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 4. Hedwigiaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 10 April 2012. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/Mosses_online/04_Hedwig.html