Branches short to elongate, mostly simple. Leaves rounded to bluntly acute, ascending when wet, mostly 1 mm; costa ending in base of acumen, often laterally spurred and often 2-fid at tip. Interior perichaetial leaves mostly 1.6--1.8 mm, apiculate or with short rough awn to about 1/6--1/4 length of expanded portion of leaf. Peristome single; exostome teeth mostly joined in pairs; endostome lacking. Calyptra narrowly conic-subcucullate. Spores papillose.

Capsules mature Apr., May. Trunks and branches of saplings and living and dead trees, exposed roots, forests; to 330 m; Ark., Ga., Miss., Okla., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va.

Cryphaea ravenelii is rare. Although similar at first glance to C. glomerata, it can be easily distinguished by its blunt leaf apices and paired exostome teeth. Further, the interior perichaetial leaves of C. glomerata have a greater tendency to be awned than those of C. ravenelii. Cryphaea ravenelii occupies the same habitats as C. glomerata and the two species have often been collected growing together.