Plants 0.5--1.5 cm. Stem leaves slightly twisted, erect-curved when dry, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 1.5--2.5 mm; leaf base ovate or oblong; margin reflexed; distal laminal cells 8--11 µm wide, with small conic papillae, sometimes almost smooth; basal laminal cells elongate-linear, thick-walled, sometimes ± nodose. Sexual condition autoicous. Seta 1.5--4 mm. Capsule obovate to oblong-obovoid, 1.1--2.8 mm, puckered, lightly 8-plicate at mouth, otherwise smooth; stomates numerous in neck; peristome single; no endostome segments; exostome teeth 8, splitting to 16, erect, densely and obscurely papillose. Calyptra oblong-conic, very hairy. Spores 19--26 µm.

Trunks and occasionally branches of deciduous trees, rarely on conifers; low elevations; N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., Idaho, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.; Europe; Asia.

This rather uncommon species prefers climax beech-maple forests, and is distributed from Newfoundland south along the Appalachians to North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, westward in the Great Lakes region to Wisconsin. A disjunctive specimen in northern Idaho (Leiberg, US) is correctly identified, but the location needs to be verified. The obovoid capsules with a strongly puckered mouth are diagnostic for this species. Ulota drummondii has football-shaped capsules whereas U. crispa has oblong, 8-ribbed capsules constricted beneath the mouth. Additionally, U. coarctata has non-crisped leaves with clasping bases and acute apices.