Plants forming a thin or thick turf, greenish yellow to brown above, blackish green or weakly iridescent metallic tan or yellowish brown below. Stems seldom branching and then irregularly, to 4 cm in length, transverse section rounded-pentagonal, central strand absent, sclerodermis absent, hyalodermis absent; axillary hairs 3–5 cells in length, basal cell usually brownish; sparsely radiculose or occasionally with a thick, reddish brown tomentum. Leaves often crowded, incurved to spreading, contorted, usually carinate, occasionally with undulate upper margins when dry, spreading when moist, lingulate to ligulate or oblanceolate, widest at or above midleaf, to 2.5 mm in length, upper lamina narrowly grooved along costa or sometimes broadly channeled, margins plane or somewhat recurved below, entire to minutely crenulate or denticulate above, often bordered by a few rows of thicker walled cells above; apex broadly acute or obtuse, often with a broad apiculus, occasionally rounded; base scarcely differentiated in shape to long-elliptical, occasionally wasp-waisted, occasionally slightly decurrent; costa slender, percurrent or ending up to 2–8 cells below the apex, occasionally excurrent as a short mucro, superficial cells quadrate to rectangular ventrally, short-rectangular to elongate dorsally, 2–4 rows of cells across costa ventrally at midleaf, costal transverse section semicircular to round, one stereid band present, generally well distinguished from the superficial parenchymatous layers, epidermis absent or present ventrally, present dorsally, guide cells 2(–4) in 1 layer, hydroid strand absent; upper laminal cells rounded-quadrate to hexagonal or short-rectangular, ca. 8–14 mm, often heterogeneous in size and shape, 1(–2):1, walls thin to evenly thickened or weakly collenchymatous, thicker near margins, superficially flat or somewhat bulging on ventral surface; papillae lacking, occasionally low-verrucose; basal cells differentiated across leaf, extending higher medially, rectangular, occasionally inflated, scarcely wider than the upper cells to inflated, 2–3:1, walls hyaline or deep brown, bordered on margins by one or more rows of narrow rectangular cells. Propagula rare, on stalks from the stem, greenish brown, clavate to ellipsoidal or filamentous and branching, ca. 12 µm in diameter, of 2 or more rounded cells. Dioicous. Perichaetia terminal, inner leaves little differentiated from the cauline. Perigonia terminal, outer leaves loosely sheathing, inner deltoid. Seta 2–6 mm in length, 1(–2) per perichaetium, brown to yellowish brown, twisted clockwise below; theca 0.6–2.2 mm in length, brown to yellowish brown or blackish, short-elliptical to short-cylindrical, exothecial cells quadrate-hexagonal to rectangular, occasionally bulging, 2–3:1, walls thin, stomates present and commonly difficult to distinguish or often apparently absent, phaneropore, at base of theca; annulus weakly differentiated or of 1–4 rows of vesiculose cells, deciduous in fragments; peristome absent. Operculum conic-rostrate, erect or oblique, ca. 0.7–1.5 mm in length, cells in straight rows. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, ca. 0.8 mm in length. Spores 8–13 µm in diameter, light brown, finely papillose or smooth. Laminal KOH color reaction yellow to yellowish orange. Reported chromosome number n = 13.