Plants small to medium-sized, pale to dark green to golden brown. Stems 1-3 cm, reclining to suberect, weakly complanate-foliate, pinnate to irregularly branched. Leaves usually falcate, sometimes strongly so, long-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, gradually narrowed to apex; margins subentire to distinctly toothed distally; alar cells many and subquadrate or few and quadrate, . Branch leaves 1-2 × 0.2-0.6 mm, sometimes smaller or larger.

Capsules mature spring. Terrestrial, epiphytic, rock; low to high elevations (0-4000 m); Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ark., Colo., Conn., Del., Ill., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Mont., N.Y., N.C., Pa., S.Dak., Tex., Vt., Wash., Wis.; Mexico; South America; Eurasia; Africa; Atlantic Islands; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia.

Variety cupressiforme accommodates specimens that cannot be placed in any of the nine varieties recognized by H. Ando, including those accepted here. Sporophytes are produced summer to fall.