黑藓科 hei xian ke
by Cao Tong and Gao Chien
Plants small to medium-sized, 1–2(–3) cm high, brown, purple-red to black, in dense tufts or in cushions. Stems erect to ascending, single or branched without a well-developed central strand. Leaves imbricate, often closely appressed when dry, erect-spreading to spreading when moist, lanceolate to ovate or panduriform, mostly concave, with obtuse or acute apices; margins plane or incurved; costa absent or single (non-Chinese taxa); upper laminal cells small, subquadrate to short-rectangular, irregularly thick-walled, often papillose; basal laminal cells elongate, strongly and irregularly thick-walled, more or less pitted, sometimes cells near margins subquadrate or short-rectangular. Dioicous or autoicous. Perichaetial leaves mostly larger than upper stem leaves, sheathing and convolute, oblong-ligulate, obtuse to acuminate. Pseudopodium produced by elongation of gametophytic axis, brown to dark brown. Capsules erect, mostly exserted, ovate to ovate-oblong, vertically splitting into 4(–5) valves from the apex to the middle of capsules or to the base when mature. Calyptrae small, mitrate. Spores brown, tetrahedral, papillose. Protonemata thalloid.