Plants: small, in mats. Stems: creeping, branches ascending. Leaves: closely erect-appressed, not contorted when dry, erect-spreading when moist, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, not rugose; margins entire; apex acute to narrowly obtuse [bluntly acuminate]; costa percurrent; basal laminal cells rounded to elliptic; distal cells rounded-quadrate, 7â12 µm, in vertical rows, smooth [papillose only over lumina]; marginal cells not distinct from basal. Sexual: condition gonioautoicous; perichaetial leaves longer than branch leaves. Seta: 4â6.5 mm. Capsule: exserted, oblong-cylindric to fusiform, ± plicate distally or not, not constricted below mouth; stomata superficial; peristome single, of exostome or endostome; exostome teeth 16 blunt, short, papillose; or endostome basal membrane low, papillose. Calyptra: mitrate, long elliptic-conic, basal lobes many, smooth, ± hairy, obscurely plicate, covering capsule. Spores: isosporous, unicellular. Distribution: se United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Asia, Africa, Indian Ocean Islands (Madagascar), Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand), Australia.
Discussion: Species 11 (1 in the flora).
Characters of Macrocoma include the rounded basal laminal cells, slender, irregularly branched stems, leaves erect-appressed when dry, cylindric capsules, peristome often reduced, and calyptra long conic-elliptic. There are often rhizoids present on the abaxial costa surface.