Plants 0.5--3 cm. Leaves lingulate, crisped when dry, 2--4 mm, broadly acute to obtuse, margins irregularly dentate distally, distal cells 10--20 µm wide, irregularly hexagonal, rather thin-walled. Seta 3--4 mm. Capsule 0.6--1 mm; peristome teeth narrowly lanceolate to subulate, smooth to faintly striolate, to 500 µm. Spores 18–20 µm.

Capsules mature summer. Wet, shaded ledge; ca. 1100 m; N.C.; Europe; Asia; Pacific Islands (Hawaii).

On the North American continent, this species is known from a single locality in the Appalachian Mts. of North Carolina (R. H. Zander 1966).