Plants 1-3 cm, in dark green tufts, evenly foliate, stems reddish tomentose. Leaves 6-8 mm, erect-patent when wet, crisped when dry, lanceolate, ending in a straight concolorous tip; alar cells inflated, hyaline or (in older leaves) reddish brown; basal laminal cells rectangular, thick-walled with pitted cell walls, ca. 3-6:1, narrower and thinner walled at margins, forming a small border; distal laminal cells subquadrate to oblique or rhombic, arranged in distinct rows; costa filling up to half of the leaf width, shortly excurrent in a dentate awn, in transverse section showing abaxial and adaxial stereid bands. Specialized asexual reproduction by micro-phyllous branches. Sporophytes absent in flora area. Base of trees and decaying logs, cypress swamps; ca. 5 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; c Africa.