Leaves short- to long-lanceolate, base weakly differentiated to ovate, shoulders weak or absent, distal laminal margins strongly and usually but not always sharply incurved or inrolled, apex plane to channeled, acute, mucro usually weak, of 1--5(--8) cells; costal adaxial stereid band smaller than the abaxial; distal laminal cells 6--13 µm wide. Sexual condition monoicous. Seta elongate, 0.3--0.8 cm. Capsule stegocarpic, long-ovate to cylindric, operculum differentiated, falling, peristome present, teeth rudimentary to lanceolate, or occasionally absent.

Capsules mature throughout year depending on area of the flora. Weedy, soil, rock, disturbed areas, roadsides, fields, acid or calcareous substrates; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Fla., Ga., Iowa, Idaho, Ill., Kans., Ky., La., Mass., Mich., Mont., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Va., Wash., Wis.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America; Eurasia; Africa; Australia; Pacific Islands.

This treatment follows the study of A. Stoneburner (1985), which justifiably included W. andrewsii, and, agreeing with H. A. Crum and L. E. Anderson (1981), pointed out the great variation in peristome development including occurrence of both eperistomate and peristomate capsules in the same collection. The present treatment includes all flora reports of W. condensa, a morphologically distinct European species with characters as listed in Excluded Species. Rhizoidal gemmae were reported by W. D. Reese (1988) but these are apparently rare.