Plants: small to medium-sized, in moderately loose to dense tufts, green or yellowish to brownish. Stems: creeping to ascending, not attenuate, unevenly foliate, julaceous or not, irregularly to regularly pinnate, branches moderately densely terete- to complanate-foliate, sometimes julaceous; central strand present; pseudoparaphyllia acute; axillary hairs of 3 or 4 cells. Stem: leaves erect, patent, or rigidly spreading, imbricate-appressed, ovate, ovate-triangular, or lanceolate, moderately to strongly concave, not or slightly plicate; base decurrent; margins serrulate proximally, serrate distally; apex gradually tapered, acute, acuminate, truncate, apiculate, or cucullate; costa to 40–80% leaf length, broad throughout, terminal abaxial spine present or absent; alar cells subquadrate to short-rectangular, large; laminal cells elongate-flexuose, walls moderately to strongly thick, prorate; basal cells shorter, wider. Branch: leaves smaller, narrower; apex acute to acuminate (sharper than stem leaves); costal abaxial surface more strongly serrate; laminal cells more strongly prorate. Sexual: condition dioicous; perichaetial leaf acumen reflexed. Seta: brownish orange to red-brown, rough. Capsule: inclined to horizontal, brownish orange to red-brown, cylindric, not or slightly curved; annulus separating by fragments; operculum long-conic, broadly rostrate; peristome xerocastique, perfect. Calyptra: naked. Spores: 13–18 µm. North America, Eurasia.
Species 5–7 (3 in the flora). The circumscription of Bryhnia needs a re-evaluation with DNA markers since morphology seems to be misleading. In Japan and adjacent areas, N. Takaki (1956) accepted 15 species within Bryhnia, but only six survived the revision by A. Noguchi and Z. Iwatsuki (1987+); most were synonymized with B. novae-angliae. Among North American species, B. graminicolor is not closely related to the core group and possibly should be segregated in its own genus.