Plants 0.5--1 cm. Stem leaves erect-appressed or slightly flexuose when dry, lanceolate, 1.8--2.4 mm, acute; margin recurved to just below apex, entire; distal laminal cells 8--12 µm wide, 1-stratose, smooth or small, conic papillae; basal laminal cells rectangular, smooth, rather thin. Sexual condition goniautoicous. Seta 0.7--1.5 mm. Capsules emergent, elliptic-cylindric and strangulate, urn 0.8--1.5 mm, strongly 8-ribbed; stomates immersed, 1/2 to completely covered by well-developed subsidiary cells; peristome double, endostome segments 8 or 16, 1--2 rows of cells wide, smooth on outside or finely sriate; exostome teeth 8, reflexed to revolute when old and dry, finely and evenly papillose. Calyptra oblong, with few smooth or papillose hairs, rarely naked. Spores 10--15 µm.

Trees; 10--500 m; Nfld.; Europe, Asia.

Rather long, elliptic (fat), strongly ribbed capsules that are strangulate provide useful field characters for identifying this species. The hairy vaginula and the shape of the capsule will separate O. stramineum from O. stellatum.