Abstract: Spore characters of 23 acrocarpous moss taxa in China are reported. Observation results show that (1) there are two types of spore shape, namely spherical and ovoid; (2) the spore diameter can be divided into four groups, namely under 10 um, 11 ~ 20um , 21 ~ 30 um and over 31 um. There are three types of aperture, namely katalept, monolete and atreme. There are four kinds of exine ornamentation, namely bacu-late, tuberculate, verrucate and pilate. There are six of spore color, namely yellow brown, dark brown, yellowish green, golden yellow, grass green and purple.The size of moss spores are different from species, but the basic types are spherical and ovoid. Biyophyte spores have three types of aperture, the trilete is original one, the monolete is the evolutionary character and the katalept is mostly common one. The ornamentation of exosporium varies from species. The smooth exine is considered to be an evolutionary character.

Key words: Acrocarpous