Dicranum linzianum Gao Chien ex Gao Chien & Zhang Guang-chu 1979

Plants small to medium-sized, 1–2 cm high, yellowish green or dull brownish green, shiny, in dense tufts. Stems erect or ascending, 2–3 branched, with short, bud-like branches. Leaves erect or curved-flexuose when dry, erect-spreading when moist, ovate-lanceolate, 3–4 mm long, contracted at base, widest in the middle, gradually narrowed to a short, acute acumen; margins plane, entire below, irregularly serrulate above the middle; costa slender, subpercurrent to percurrent, roughened at back above; upper cells short, oval to rounded rhombic, thick-walled, somewhat porose; basal cells elongate, rhomboidal, thick-walled, porose; alar cells short-rectangular, uni-to bistratose, yellowish brown, thick-walled. Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves sheathing at base, abruptly narrowed to a hairpoint. Mature sporophytes not seen.

Distribution: endemic to China.

Habitat: on humic soil in grasslands.