Andreaea wangiana Chen Pan-chieh ex Chen Pan-chieh, Wan & T.-l. 1958

Andreaea wangiana is distinctive by the following features: 1) narrowly lanceolate leaves with acute and somewhat incurved apices; 2) nearly smooth upper laminal cells; and 3) capsules longitudinally splitting to 4 valves only to the middle part of urns when mature. This species is closely related to A. densifolia (Wils.) Mitt. In the protologue, Chen and Wan (1958) stated that A. wangiana was different from A. densifolia in having acuminate leaves with smooth laminal cells. Specimens identified as A. densifolia by C. Gao (1985) are actually A. wangiana.

Plants dark brown to black, to 1.0–2.8 cm high, in dense tufts. Stems slender, erect, fragile when dry, much branched, rarely single. Leaves 8–12 mm × 3.5–4.5 mm, fragile, closely appressed when dry, narrowly lanceolate from an ovate-oblong base, with acute, incurved apices, sometimes very shortly hyaline-pointed; margins entire, plane or somewhat incurved above, bistratose above the middle part; upper and median laminal cells dark-brown, round to nearly rounded, 5–8(–10) µm in diameter, thick-walled, smooth or nearly so; basal laminal cells rectangular to oblong, hyaline, yellowish, 20–40 µm × 6–8 µm, irregularly thick-walled, slightly pitted. Dioicous. Perichaetial leaves oblong-lingulate, obtuse to short-acuminate, ca. 2 mm long. Pseudopodium 2.0–2.4 mm long. Capsules exserted, oblong-cylindric, about 1.4 mm × 0.5 mm, upper half of capsules reddish brown, splitting to 4 valves when mature, lower half of capsules yellow to yellowish brown, not splitting. Spores brownish, 28–32 µm in diameter, densely papillose.

Distribution: endemic to China.

Habitat: on dry rocks at high elevation between 2800–4760 m.

Andreaea densifolia auct. non Mitt., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot., Suppl. 1: 7. 1859. C. Gao in X.-J. Li (ed.). Bryofl. Xizang 6. 1985.