Plants pale to yellow-green. Stem leaves widely spaced, erect to spreading, 0.3--0.4 mm, rounded to ovate, acuminate to shortly apiculate, the apiculus ± recurved; margins serrulate; distal laminal cells faintly prorulose.

An Arctic and northern boreal species of moist calcareous habitats; infrequent in fens, rock crevices, and tundra meadows; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., Nfld., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Yukon; Alaska; Europe; n Asia; n Africa.

This species is similar to M. julacea in color and general habit, but with widely spaced leaves that end in a well-developed, often recurved apiculus. It differs from M. sibirica in features of the leaf papillae and margins.