Distichium brevisetum Gao Chien ex Gao Chien, Zhang Guang-chu & Cao Tong 1981

Plants slender, (1–)1.5–2.5 cm high, yellowish green to brownish green, somewhat shiny, in dense tufts. Stems flattened, erect, simple, or rarely branched. Leaves distichous, 1.5–2.1 mm long, abruptly narrowed from an erect, oblong-ovate, sheathing base to a short, setaceous acumen, the acumina half to as long as the sheathing base; margins plane, minutely crenulate above the shoulder; costa stout, excurrent, filling most of the subula; upper cells irregularly hexagonal, 6–13 µm × 5–6 µm; basal cells linear-rectangular, 26–50 µm × 5–7 µm. Autoicous or dioicous. Perichaetial leaves similar to the upper stem leaves, slightly larger. Setae straight, short, 3–4 mm long, reddish brown; capsules erect, oblong-ovoid to short-cylindric, symmetric or slightly asymmetric, ca. 1 mm long; opercula conic-rostrate; annuli differentiated; peristome teeth pale yellow, 70–80 µm long, irregularly divided or only perforated, vertically striolate. Spores not seen.

Distribution: endemic to China.

Habitat: on rocks or grassland in subalpine regions.

Distichium papillosum C. Müll. var. compactum C. Müll. in Levier, Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s. 13: 257. 1906. nom. nud