Disceliaceae
Plants annual, minute, arising from a perennial persistent protonema. Stems erect, to 0.2 mm, completely enveloped in leaves. Leaves with costa weak or absent, brownish or with little chlorophyll, exterior leaves 0.2–0.4 mm, interior to 1 mm, acuminate, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, margins entire to crenulate by bulging cells; laminal cells elongate-hexagonal to rectangular, thin-walled, 85–100 × 12–16 µm, smooth. Specialized asexual reproduction by 2-celled starch-filled rhizoidal gemmae. Sexual condition functionally dioicous; perigonium of 3–6 leaves surrounding a few short antheridia and yellow, club-shaped paraphyses; perichaetium with few brownish, weakly chlorophyllose leaves, these representing the plant. Seta erect, twisted to right when dry, 4–30 mm or more. Capsule wide-mouthed, 0.4–0.7 mm, pale to dark brown when mature, stomata absent; annulus in 1–2 cell rows, deciduous; peristome of 16 reddish brown to orange-yellow lanceolate exostomial teeth, to 0.3 mm, with vertical striations on exterior face, often with longitudinal perforations, endostome delicate, as a sometimes discontinuous membrane adhering to exostomial teeth; operculum conic. Calyptra smooth, sometimes persistent on seta proximal to capsule. Spores 20–30 µm.
Distribution
{{#Distribution Maps: family
|North America;Europe;Asia.
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| }} North America, Europe, Asia.
Discussion
Genus 1, species 1.
Disceliaceae is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere but always rare. It is predominantly temperate, but also boreal at lower elevations.