Plants slender to robust, in loose, greenish to yellowish-brown tufts or mats. Stems 2-20 cm long, often tomentose (white above, red-brown below), not fluted in sectional view. Leaves erect to spreading, flexuose-twisted to contorted when dry, squarrose-recurved when moist, keeled above, ovate- to long-lanceolate, acute, ovate-sheathing at base, slightly decurrent; margins recurved in the upper 1/2-2/3 and dentate above; costa ending 3-5 cells below the apex, papillose dorsally in the upper half; upper cells 11-15 µm, subquadrate, with walls thickened at the corners (or rarely not much thickened), the papillae scattered over the lumen, low, simple to bifid; inner basal cells rectangular, 65-75 ´ 11-13 µm. Autoicous or occasionally dioicous. Setae (9-)16-22(-25) µm long; capsules (2.5-)3-3.5(-4) mm long; annulus of 4-8 layers of red-brown cells; operculum conic-rostrate, 1.2-1.5 mm long; peristome teeth linear, 250-400 µm long, 15-20 µm wide at base, red- to yellow-brown, lightly striate; preperistome occasional, up to 140 µm high. Spores lightly papillose, of 2 size classes: 17-20 µm (lenticular to tetrahedral, light brown and appearing aborted) and 23-25 µm or more (nearly spherical and translucent-green when fresh).