Plants 0.5-2(-5) cm. Stems red or reddish brown. Leaves green to dark green, slightly contorted and undulate when dry, ovate-elliptic or elliptic, 1.5-2.5 mm; base short- to long-decurrent; margins green, 1-stratose, entire or weakly toothed distally, rarely to below mid leaf, teeth single, small, blunt (often rounded), occasionally somewhat paired; apex acute, rounded-acute, or obtuse, sometimes short-apiculate; costa ending well before apex, distal abaxial surface smooth; medial laminal cells ± isodiametric or short-elongate, (15-)20-32 µm, slightly smaller near margins, not in diagonal rows, sometimes in weak longitudinal rows, weakly collenchymatous, blue postmortal color present in cells; marginal cells indistinctly differentiated from medial cells, short-linear or rhomboidal, in 1 (or 2) rows. Sexual condition dioicous. Seta single. Capsule pale to dark brown, 2-3 mm; operculum conic-mammillate; exostome yellowish brown. Spores 20-29 µm.

Capsules mature late spring. Base of trees, stumps, soil banks, soil over rock, moist shaded sites; low to moderate elevations; B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Ga., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va.; Europe; Asia; Africa.