Grimmia flexipilis Lindberg ex Brotherus, Acta Soc. Sci. Fenn. 19(12): 92. 1892

Plants in compact tufts or mats, (yellow-) green or olivaceous. Stems 1.3-3(-4) cm, central strand weak or absent. Leaves usually curved, often falcate-secund, sometimes erect, imbricate when dry, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, keeled distally, 1.7-2.4 mm, 1-stratose to, rarely, 2-stratose in striae distally; margins usually recurved to apex, smooth, usually 2-stratose, sometimes 1-stratose or multistratose; apices acute or sub-obtuse; costa percurrent or excurrent as a smooth or weakly denticulate, usually non-decurrent, flexuose awn, sometimes embracing part of the lamina, smooth; basal marginal cells quadrate or short-rectangular; distal laminal cells quadrate or short-rectangular, 8-10 µm wide, smooth, sinuose. Sexual condition autoicous. Capsule orange-brown or red-brown, short-cylindric to cylindric, 0.8-1.3 mm; exothecial cells usually a mix of isodiametric, short-elongate, and oblate cells, thin-walled, walls often curved, usually trigonous; stomata present; peristome recurved to squarrose-recurved, sometimes twisted, 260-430 µm, orange or reddish orange, weakly papillose, usually strongly perforated. Spores 11-17 µm, granulose.

Capsules mature late spring to early summer. Dry to seasonally moist rocks and ledges; low to moderate elevations (0-500 m); Greenland; Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), Nunavut, Que.; Eurasia.

The falcate, often distally secund leaves as well as the green color readily characterize Schistidium flexipile. Its short, narrow, and smooth-margined leaves also help to distinguish is from the closely related S. apocarpum.