Plants mostly erect, very glossy. Fronds predominantly palmate, to 6 cm diam.; branches complanate. Distal innovations absent or very weak. Stipe to 9 cm long, tomentose at the base only. Pseudoparaphyllia appressed. Stipe leaves triangular to triangular-ovate, 1.2–2.9 mm long, appressed; acumen often erecto-patent; base appressed, not or only a little narrowed at insertion, the insertion line straight or nearly so; apex acuminate; costa weak; margin entire or nearly so; alar cells poorly differentiated. Branch leaves ovate-oblong, 1.8–2.9 mm long; apex acute to slightly acuminate; costa ending in the apex to percurrent; margin serrate, the teeth simple, or mixed with geminate ones; mid-leaf cells 35–95 μm long.

Sporophytes up to 18. Seta 2.0–4.5 cm long. Capsules narrowly cylindrical, sulcate, not strumose, 3.5–5.5 mm long; operculum rostrate. Spores 12–17 μm diam.

Native.

Widespread in the Australasian region (Ramsay 1987).

Hypnodendron vitiense Mitt., in B.C. Seemann, Flora Vitiensis 401 (1873). Type: Fiji Islands, B.C. Seemann 842; holo: NY; iso: FH.

Two weak subspecies have been recognised, and both occur in north-eastern Qld where they appear to intergrade. However, all plants from that area are small and depauperate, and most are difficult to place because of their poor condition.

Ramsay, H.P. (1987). Cytological and other studies on the Hypnodendraceae. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 45: 135–153.

Touw, A. (1971). A taxonomic revision of the Hypnodendraceae (Musci). Blumea 19: 211–354.

Touw, A. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 22. Hypnodendraceae. (Australian Biological Resources Study: Canberra). Version 18 May 2012.

Touw, A. (2012). Australian Mosses Online 22. Hypnodendraceae. (Australian Biological Resources Study: Canberra). Version 18 May 2012.