Plants medium-sized, green, glossy. Stems 0.5-2.5 cm. Leaves ± erect, lanceolate, 0.6-1.6 mm; margins serrulate to serrate in distal 1/3; costa subpercurrent; distal medial laminal cells rhombic to linear-rhomboidal, 60-105 µm, walls thin. Specialized asexual reproduction usually present when sterile; axillary gemmae in dense clusters, isodiametric to oblong, orange to red or sometimes green, leaf primordia restricted to apex, , peglike, . Sexual condition dioicous; perigonial leaves ovate; perichaetial leaves weakly differentiated, narrowly lanceolate. Seta orange-brown. Capsule inclined 95-180°, brown to stramineous, pyriform, neck 1/3 urn length; exothecial cells short-rectangular, walls sinuate; stomata superficial; annulus present; operculum convex-conic; exostome teeth yellow-brown, narrowly triangular-acute; endostome hyaline, basal membrane 1/2 exostome length, segments distinctly keeled, broadly perforate, cilia short to rudimentary. Spores 16-21 µm, finely roughened.

Capsules mature summer (Jun-Aug). Acid, sandy disturbed soil, path banks, stream banks; low to high elevations; Greenland; N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska; Europe.

The glossy leaves of Pohlia andrewsii are much like those of P. proligera, but the axillary gemmae are oblong, typically orange to red, and have two to five short primordia incurved over the gemma apex.