in A. Gray, Manual, 647. 1848.

Etymology: Greek, aphanes, invisible,and rhegma, fracture, alluding to inconspicuous line of capsule dehiscence
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 27. Treatment on page 181. Mentioned on page 195.

Plants very small, scattered or gregarious. Stems to 5 mm, erect, branches simple or branching. Leaves crispate to contorted when dry, erect-spreading when moist, oblong-lanceolate, 2–2.5 mm; margins serrulate distally; apices short-acuminate; costa single, percurrent; proximal laminal cells rectangular, distal cells rectangular to almost quadrate. Sexual condition autoicous. Seta erect, to 0.2 mm. Capsule stegocarpous, erect, immersed, symmetric, globose, to 0.7 mm, smooth; exothecial cells collenchymatous, particularly those adjacent to line of dehiscence; stomata at the very base of the capsule, superficial; annulus narrow, consisting of 1(–2) rows of delicate, small cells; operculum conical, short-apiculate, line of dehiscence equatorial, peristome absent. Calyptra mitrate, 4–6 lobed, small, smooth. Spores spherical, spiny-papillose.


e North America.


Species 1.

Selected References