Laminal cells distinctly mammillose; cells of leaf base and margin smooth. Leaf margin often somewhat undulate near base. Perichaetial paraphyses hair-like, usually projecting beyond bracts. Calyptra with few or numerous hairs. Rostrum erect or oblique, straight, rarely hooked.

A common variety in southern W.A., eastern S.A., Qld (rare and usually at higher elevations in tropical Qld), N.S.W., A.C.T., Vic. and Tas.; also in New Zealand (rather rare), some Pacific islands (Lord Howe, Norfolk, Kermadec, Cook and Austral Is.) and central Chile (probably introduced on timber imported from Australia).

The habitat is very similar to that of var. cuspidigerum.

Racopilum cuspidigerum var. convolutaceum (Müll.Hal.) Zanten & Dijkstra, Fragm. Florist. Geobot. 40: 411 (1995); Hypopterygium convolutaceum Müll.Hal., Syn. Musc. Frond. 2: 13 (1850); Racopilum convolutaceum (Müll.Hal.) Reichardt, Reise Novara, Pilze, Leber-Laubm. 1(3): 194 (1870). Type: “Nova Hollandia, Isle de King”, [W.A.], L.Preiss; holotype: B n.v. (probably destroyed); neotype: BM, East Gippsland, Vic., F.Mueller, Herb. Hampe 1881, fide B.O. van Zanten, op. cit. 411 (1995).

Racopilum cristatum Hook.f. & Wilson, in J.D.Hooker, Fl. Nov.-Zel. 2: 121 (‘1855’) [1854]. Type: Tehawera forest, North Is., New Zealand, W.Colenso 2540; holotype: BM.

Racopilum crinitum Hampe,  Linnaea 36: 525 (1870). Type: Porongorups, W.A., Oct. 1867, F.Mueller; holotype: BM; isotype: MEL, NY.

W.A.: Pemberton, G.G.Smith 82 (FH, MEL). S.A.: Aldgate, L.D.Williams 649 (MEL).

Qld: Murphies Ck, 16 km NE Toowoomba, H.Streimann 369 (CANB).

N.S.W.: Larrys Mtn, 10 km NW of Moruya, H.Streimann 3666 (CANB, GRO).

A.C.T.: Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, H.Streimann 1415 (CANB).

Vic.: Tarwin R., F.Mueller 16 (MEL). Tas.: Mt Dromedary, R.A.Bastow 640 (MEL).

There is a clear correlation between the mammillosity of the laminal cells and geographical location. Thus, cells are smooth in tropical Qld, distinctly mammillose in southern Australia, with intermediate forms (along with smooth and mammillose-celled plants) occurring in N.S.W. and southern Qld. These intermediates often have smooth and mammillose-celled leaves on the same plant, and they also occur rarely in Vic. and Tas. and in northern Qld where they are restricted to higher altitudes. Because of these intermediates, R. convolutaceum is considered to be only a variety of R. cuspidigerum.

There is a tendency for the curvature of the capsules to be somewhat more pronounced in var. convolutaceum than in var. cuspidigerum, and a hooked rostrum is more often present in the latter. Specimens from W.A. are characterised by a narrower leaf apex combined with very strongly mammillose laminal cells.

D.G.Catcheside, Mosses of South Australia 292, fig. 175 (1980); H.Streimann, The Mosses of Norfolk Island 136, fig. 61 (2002), as R. cuspidigerum.

B.O.van Zanten (2012), Australian Mosses Online 56. Racopilaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 28 June 2012.

First published as:  B.O.van Zanten (2006), Racopilaceae, Fl. Australia 51: 371–376. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra & CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.