Leaves ovate-lanceolate to short-subulate from an ovate or obovate base, entire at apex; costa percurrent or subpercurrent. Seta short, 4-6 mm. Capsule not or little inclined, slightly curved; neck equaling the urn in length, cylindric or obovate, not strumose but tapering instead; peristome teeth entire or perforate near apex, not fragile, commonly persistent; annulus compound, revoluble.

Capsules mature late summer-fall. Soil, gravel, humus, crevices; generally alpine, high elevations; Greenland; Alaska; n Europe; c Asia (Kazakhstan, Mongolia).

I. A. Worley and Z. Iwatsuki (1970) reported both Trematodon brevicollis and T. ambiguus from Alaska.