Plants: small, green to glaucous or brownish green. Stems: with secondary stems decumbent to spreading and ascending, branches short to elongate, simple or irregularly branched; paraphyllia and pseudoparaphyllia absent. Leaves: tightly imbricate when dry, usually wide-spreading when moist; margins plane or somewhat recurved proximally; medial laminal cells smooth or prorulose abaxially, especially distally, mostly smooth adaxially. Sexual: condition autoicous; perichaetia lateral, inner leaves usually ± awned, awns usually denticulate. Seta: very short. Capsule: immersed; peristome double (single in C. ravenelii); exostome teeth narrowly triangular; endostome segments narrow, papillose, sometimes indistinct or absent. Calyptra: conic or sometimes almost cucullate, smooth or papillose. Nearly worldwide, mostly tropical and subtropical regions.
Species ca. 60 (4 in the flora). Cryphaea occurs in thin or dense colonies, with slender, often inconspicuous branches standing out from the substrate. The dull, wiry aspect of the spreading, mostly simple branches is characteristic.