Orthothecium Bruch, Schimp. & W. Gümbel, Bryol.

Orthothecium Bruch, Schimp. & W. Gümbel, Bryol. View in CoL Eur. 5: 105 (fasc. 48. Mon. 1), nom. cons.

Plants small to large, in loose tufts, golden-green, golden-yellow, bronze, brownish, dark-brown, brownish-red, wine-red or purple, glossy. Stems procumbent, ascending or erect, weakly or irregularly branched, terete-foliate, central strand present, hyalodermis absent, rhizoids axillary. Leaves densely or, rarely, distantly arranged, erect-spreading, erect or appressed, occasionally secund, ovate, oblong-ovate, ovate-triangular, ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, acute, acuminate or abruptly contracted into short, straight, flexuose or revolute apiculus, weakly narrowed or rounded to insertion, not decurrent or very shortly decurrent; margins entire or serrulate in upper part of acumina, plane or narrowly recurved; costa short, double or almost absent; leaf cells narrow linear, ± thick-walled, scarcely or moderately porose; basal leaf cells shorter and wider, porose, alar cells not differentiated. Specialized asexual reproduction by axillary gemmae, occasionally present in almost all species, composed of one row of 3–5 cells and occasionally two cells wide at apex. Dioicous. Sporophytes rare, in some species unknown. Capsules erect or slightly inclined, straight or weakly curved. Peristome ± perfect; exostome teeth pale, on dorsal surface striolate below, papillose above; endostome with high basal membrane, wide or narrow segments, cilia as long as segments or shorter. Spores 8– 16 µm.

Type: Orthothecium rufescens (Dicks. ex Brid.) Bruch, Schimp. & W. Gümbel. The genus includes at least 10 species in the Arctic and in the mountain regions of boreal and temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere.