From the Greek mnion (moss), and dendron (a tree), in reference to the tree-like habit of the plants.

Plants small to tall, erect. Distal innovations frequently present, these often strong and forming several tiers. Stipe covered with tomentum. Frond umbellate; branches not or weakly complanate; branches at best weakly complanate. Stipe leaves widely spreading to squarrose-recurved, often longitudinally plicate or striate; base often shortly decurrent; apex acuminate; margin serrulate to serrate above; costa mostly percurrent to aristate. Laminal cells smooth or prorate; margin cells often shorter than the inner ones; alar cells enlarged, mostly forming a conspicuous group. Branch leaves uniform and symmetrical or nearly so, often secund, often longitudinally plicate to striate, mostly triangular ovate-lanceolate to very narrowly triangular; apex often very narrow, usually gradually acuminate; margin serrate; costa ending in the apex to excurrent; areolation as in the stipe leaves, but alar cells less distinct.

Male gametoecia often grouped together in a flat or somewhat convex disc. Capsule theca sulcate, inclined to cernuous; operculum sharply rostrate. Spores 12–20 μm diam.

Genus of 7 species shared between Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malesia through to Tahiti and New Zealand (Ohlsen 2021); 2 species in Australia.

Mniodendron LIndb. ex Dozy & Molk., Bryologia Javanica 2(2); 136 (1866).Lecto: Hypnum divaricatum Reinw. [= M. dendroides (Brid.) Wijk & Margad.]

Mniodendron kroneanum (Müll.Hal.) A.Jaeger ex Paris, Index Bryol., 2nd edn, 3: 263 (1904)

Erroneously reported from Australia by H. Streimann & J. Curnow in Catalogue of Mosses of Australia and its External Territories: 196 (1989). This taxonomic synonym of M. comosum has been used for plants from Norfolk Island only.

Hypnodendron palmaeum Mitt., Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 7: 103 (1882); Mniodendron palmaeum (Mitt.) Broth., in H.G.A. Engler & K.A.E. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. I, 3(2): 1172 (1909)

This is a heterotypic synonym of the Indo-Pacific M. dendroides (Brid.) Wijk & Margad., and has been reported erroneously from Australia by R. Van der Wijk et al. (Index Muscorum 2: 533, 1962), W. Schultze-Motel (Willdenowia 3: 445, 1963) and others.

Kindberg, N.C. (1899). Studien über die Systematik der pleurokarpischen Laubmoose, Botanisches Centralblatt. 77: 393.

Ohlsen, D. (2021). Mniodendron in VICFLORA - Flora of Victoria. (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria). [Accessed 18 March 2025]

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.