Abstract: We recorded the micromorphological structure of bristle, wart and cutile ornamentation of leaf apex of ten mosses from No.1 glacier of Tianshan Mountains by LM and SEM. Most cells on the top and margin of the leaf apex of ten species were transparent with thick wall and large cell lumen. Margin of the leaf apex was involuted and rough, and the cell wall was sunken with small pore when it was dry. These characteristics shows obvious desiccation tolerance. They are beneficial to the absorption of water, resistance long period cold, and reflection solar radiation. Types of leaf apex have little significance to the classification of family and genus of bryophytes, but the micromorphological structure of wart, cutile ornamentation and cell wall, and cell number of the cells on the top and margin of the leaf apex are obviously different betweeb different species in the same genus.

Key words: No.1 glacier of Tianshan Mountains, bryophytes, SEM, leaf apex, micromorphology