Aloina

Description

Plants small size, growing in dense or gregarious turfs, usually reddish brown. Stems erect, sometimes with basitone innovations; in cross-section circular, hyalodermis undifferentiated, sclerodermis absent, central strand absent or present; axillary hairs of hyaline cells; Rhizoids, brownish, smooth; rhizoidal and protonematic gemmae sometimes absent. Leaves carnose, incurved or imbricate when dry, erect-patent when moist, mostly lingulate, ovate or ligulate, deeply concave; base auriculate, sheating, non-decurrent; lamina partly bistratose, reddish with KOH; apex rounded, cucullate, mucronate or piliferous; hyaline hair sometimes differentiated smooth formed from the lamina; margins entire, dentate or crenulate, stongly incurved from the base to the apex, unistratose; bordered or not marginally, by short-rectangular to linear, thin-walled and hyaline cells; costa ending at or some cells below the apex, sometimes excurrent; in cross-section plane-convex, guide cells in two to four layers, band of ventral stereids usually undifferentiated, band of dorsal stereids differentiated, semicircular, sometimes wanting, hydroids absent, photosyntetical filaments uniseriate, branched or not, inserted on the guide cells and covering the adjacent part of the dorsal surface of the lamina, filament cells cylindrical to subspheric, thin-walled, terminal cell subspheric to nearly conic, with an apical thickening; dorsal surface cells differentiated. Upper and middle laminal cells mostly oblate, sometimes rectangular, quadrate or rounded, thick-walled, not or slightly collenchymatous, smooth; upper and middle marginal cells undifferentiated; basal laminal cells quadrate or rectangular; basal marginal cells sometimes differentiated, quadrate or rectangular, thin-walled, hyaline. Dioicous or monoicous (synoicous, rhizoautoicous or cladatoicous). Perigonium with obovate leaves and smaller than perichaetial leaves, with costa poorly developed. Perichaetia terminal; leaves usually undifferenciated, occasionally without filaments; if the species has piliferous leaves the perigonial and perichaetial without or poor developed hair. Seta erect, usually spirally twisted to right above and to left below, rarely spirally twisted to the left throughout, reddish brown. Capsule erect, sometimes inclined, stegocarpous, exserted; theca ovoid-cylindrical to cylindrical, reddish brown; exothecial cells irregularly quadrate, thin to thick-walled; stomata at theca base, superficial; annulus of 1-3 rows vesiculose cells, usually deciduous; peristome of 32 filamentous, papillose, spirally twisted, incurved to the capsule or nearly straight teeth, reddish brown to yellowish brown, basal membrane usually developed, papillose yellowish to orange, sometimes undifferentiated. Operculum conical or rostrate, not systylious, with spirally twisted cells, orange to reddish brown. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, naked, yellowish brown. Spores spherical, usually granulate, yellowish to light brown.