Leaves muticous, costa ending before the apex.

Capsules mature spring-summer. Soil, trail banks, rock wall, tree trunk, hummocks, mouths of lemming burrows; low to high elevations (40-1800 m); Greenland; Alta., B.C., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.W.T., Nunavut, Que.; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Europe; Asia.

The bulbiform habit is particularly pronounced in var. latifolia. H. Gams (1934) discussed this taxon as a circumpolar, microtheric, steppe moss; R. Ochyra and R. I. Lewis-Smith (1996) provided a detailed map of the world distribution.