Archegonial plants 3.5--7 mm in diameter, growing in isolated tufts, lobes crispate and somewhat ascending, involucres 1--2.5 mm high, tubular, ovoid, to obovate, generally flaring at the apex; orifice large, wider than or as wide as the involucral apex or nearly so. Antheridial plants 1.8--2.1 mm in diameter, cuneate, oblong to orbicular, involucres 235--415 µm high, greenish, becoming purplish with age, vase-shaped, narrowing toward the apex or obovate. Sporangia 570--590 µm. Spores in permanent tetrads at maturity, 62--85 µm, yellowish-brown, cristate, ridges to 5 µm high, forming reticulae or in parallel lines, crenulate to tuberculate in profile, areolae present, 4--6 across the face, sometimes with 1--2 tubercules.

Damp clay or alluvial soils; low elevations; Idaho, Oreg., Wash.

This species and S. drewii are the rarest of North American Sphaerocarpos.