Dutch: Uiterwaardmosfamilie.
Region: tropical to temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres.
Habitat: on trees, rocks; soil dwellers or epiphytes.
BotanyMosses; usually small to medium-sized.
Stems: prostrate to erect; irregularly or regularly branched; central strand in the stem cross-section is weak or absent; paraphyllia and pseudoparaphyllia may be present or absent.
Leaves: papillose, rounded, or rhomboid; short to long pointed; often wrinkled; lamina cells are isodiametric to linear-rugose and smooth or papillose; leaf wing cells are more or less differentiated and usually square; vein is usually simple and ends before the leaf tip.
Capsule: erect, straight or curved, the peristome often reduce; seta is elongated, often twisted, usually smooth; dioecious or autoecious (antheridia and archegonia on different branches on the same plant).
Growth form: pleurocarpus.
Gametophyte. Pleurocarpous; not dendroid; mostly forming patches, or forming wefts. Primary stems procumbent (the branches erect or procumbent). Shoots not complanate. Paraphyllia present (sparse or numerous), or absent. Pseudoparaphyllia absent. Stems not tomentose. The leaves of main stems and branches similar in form; ovate to lanceolate (concave); spiral; (sub-) secund (or the tips turned to one side, when moist), or not secund; double-nerved, or single-nerved. The leaf nerves not extending beyond the middle of the leaf, or extending beyond the middle of the leaf, but not to the tip. Leaf blade apices obtuse, or pointed; apically rounded, or apically acute, or acuminate. Leaf blade margins flat, or revolute or recurved; entire, or denticulate. Leaf blades not conspicuously bordered. The basal leaf cells more or less isodiametric to longitudinally much elongated (short save in some Lescuraea species); quadrate, or rectangular, or rounded, or rhomboidal to linear (in some Lescuraea species); papillose, or smooth. The walls of basal leaf cells thin, or thick; straight. The angular cells clearly differentiated, or not well differentiated. The mid-leaf cells more or less isodiametric to somewhat longitudinally elongated, or longitudinally much elongated (in Lescuraea and Ptychodium); quadrate, or rectangular, or hexagonal, or rounded, or rhomboidal to vermicular; papillose, or smooth. The walls of the mid-leaf cells thin, or thick; straight.
Plants monoecious, or dioecious; when monoecious, autoecious.
Sporophyte. Capsules exserted; erect to inclined; symmetrical, or symmetrical to asymmetrical; straight, or curved; sub-cylindric to ovoid; smooth; with an annulus, or without an annulus. Calyptra symmetrical; splitting down one side. Capsules with a peristome. The peristome double. The peristome teeth joined basally to form a membranous ring (in Lescuraea), or not basally joined (?); not grouped; not deeply cleft; thin, membranous, and transversely barred; exteriorly with a fine longitudinal dividing line between the transverse bars. The inner peristome reduced to rudimentary; about equalling the outer to exceeding the outer; with a basal membranous ring (this short); with elongated “processes”; without cilia (or rudimentary). The operculum conical to rostrate. Setae long; straight.
Ecology. In wet places to xerophytic; occurring in basic habitats, or neutral pH conditions. Mostly on rocks at high altitudes, but
Leskea polycarpa is common at low altitudes and is often found silt-encrusted on tree roots, trunks and branches, and by pools, streams and rivers (sometimes in flood zones).
Cytology. Haploid chromosome number, n = 10 and 11 (and 11 + 2, with only
Leskea polycarpa sampled).
Genera: Claopodium, Fabronidium, Haplocladium, Hylocomiopsis, Leptocladium, Leptopterigynandrum, Lescuraea, Leskea, Leskeadelphus, Leskeella, Lindbergia, Mamillariella, Orthoamblystegium, Platylomella, Pseudoleskea, Pseudoleskeella, Pseudoleskeopsis, Ptychodium, Rigodiadelphus, Rozea, Schwetschkea.