Plants small, green to glaucous or brownish green. Stems with secondary stems decumbent to spreading and ascending, branches short to elongate, simple or irregularly branched; paraphyllia and pseudoparaphyllia absent. Leaves tightly imbricate when dry, usually wide-spreading when moist; margins plane or somewhat recurved proximally; medial laminal cells smooth or prorulose abaxially, especially distally, mostly smooth adaxially. Sexual condition autoicous; perichaetia lateral, inner leaves usually ± awned, awns usually denticulate. Seta very short. Capsule immersed; peristome double (single in C. ravenelii); exostome teeth narrowly triangular; endostome segments narrow, papillose, sometimes indistinct or absent. Calyptra conic or sometimes almost cucullate, smooth or papillose.

Distribution

Nearly worldwide, mostly tropical and subtropical regions.

Discussion

Species ca. 60 (4 in the flora).

Cryphaea occurs in thin or dense colonies, with slender, often inconspicuous branches standing out from the substrate. The dull, wiry aspect of the spreading, mostly simple branches is characteristic.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Cryphaea filiformis, Cryphaea glomerata, Cryphaea nervosa, Cryphaea ravenelii

Key

1	Leaf apices rounded to bluntly acute; peristome single; exostome teeth in pair s.	Cryphaea ravenelii
1	Leaf apices acute to acuminate; peristome double; exostome teeth single	> 2
2	Leaf costae percurrent or nearly so; apices acuminate.	Cryphaea nervosa
2	Leaf costae not percurrent; apices acute to short-acuminate	> 3
3	Inner perichaetial leaves 2.5-2.8 mm, awns 1/2 length expanded portion of leaf; leaf costae tip not 2-fid; s Florida.	Cryphaea filiformis
3	Inner perichaetial leaves 1.6-1.9 mm, awns 1/5 -1/4 length expanded portion of leaf; leaf costae tip ± 2-fid; e, se United States.	Cryphaea glomerata