Plants in loose tufts, green to light green, glossy. Leaves falcate-secund, flexuose, 8--11.5(--15) mm; margins serrate in distal half; costa percurrent to shortly excurrent, toothed distally on abaxial surface, with a double row of guide cells.

Capsules mature in spring. Humus, soil, soil over rock, and rotten wood in coniferous woods, bogs, and tundra; 0--1500 m; Greenland; s Alta., w B.C., n Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Nun., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Yukon; Alaska, Maine, Mass., R.I., Wash.; Europe; Asia.

The var. majus its typical form it is known by its glossy, long (8--15 mm), falcate-secund leaves with serrate margins in the distal half, by its costae with two rows of guide cells (seen in cross section), the abaxial surface toothed and not ridged distally, and by its aggregate setae (2--5 per perichaetium).