E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Species description:
Genus name refers to the four teeth of the peristome. Species name refers to the transparent leaves (when wet).

Reproduction:
Sporophytes common, reddish-brown when mature, maturing in late spring to summer. Gemma-producing shoots also abundant, especially conspicuous in late summer, producing cup-like terminal masses of leaves surrounding "nests" of slender-stalked, disc-shaped gemmae that are dispersed by splashing raindrops.

Comments:
With diligence, it is possible to find tiny, rounded, leaf ­like flaps growing on the shaded, rotten-wood habitat of Tetraphis; these structures precede the appearance of the leafy shoots. They are clearly visible with a 10X hand lens but can be

Distinguishing characteristics:
The gemma-cup bearing shoots, the four unjointed peristome teeth and the usual habitat on well decomposed, but friable wood are useful characters.

Habit:
Forming short, dense to loose, dark to pale green turfs of erect, unbranched plants.

Similar Species:
T. geniculata is very similar but the seta has a sharp, angular bend in the middle. Aulacomnium androgynum grows in similar, but usually drier, sites and produces gemma-bearing shoots which are terminated by a sphere of gemmae that are not enclosed in a "cup" of leaves; sporophytes of Aulacomnium are grooved and have many jointed peristome teeth.