Plants glaucous or yellowish green, usually in dense tufts. Stems 0.5--4 cm. Leaves erect-appressed to laxly erect when dry, erect-spreading to spreading recurved or somewhat secund when moist; tips fragile, frequently broken, 3--8 mm, narrowly lanceolate subulate from a sheathing base, shoulders well developed but delicate, often eroded; margins plane or weakly revolute, entire proximally, serrulate distally, teeth frequently paired; costa excurrent in slenderly serrulate tip, abaxially prominent, rough abaxially in the distal portion; basal laminal cells thin-walled, distal cells 10--25 × 5--6 µm. Sexual condition apparently dioicous; not producing sporophytes in flora area.

Cliff crevices and over thin soil on canyon ledges, occasionally at base of boulders; 2000--3300 m.; Ariz., Colo., N.Dak., N.Mex.; Mexico; Central America; South America.

This species is widespread in mountains of the Neotropics, from Mexico to Argentina. The fragile leaf tips and delicate, often eroded, shoulders aid in identification. While most fertile collections from south of the flora area are dioicous, S. Fransén (1995) has encountered several synoicous plants from Mexico and Guatemala which he recognizes as Bartramia potosica ssp. synoica Fransén. Gametangia have yet to be found on plants from the flora area.