Plants with aerial shoots 2--6  0.5--0.7 mm, whitish-green to grayish-green. Stem subterranean rhizome to 1 cm, branches occasionally leafless, 150--500  m wide, stolons elongated, densely rhizoidous, rhizoids brownish. Lateral leaves transverse, imbricate, elliptical, 450--600  450--850  m; lobe margins entire; cell shape variable, marginal cells 10--15  m, median cells 15--20  20--25  m, basal cells 20--60  m, surface smooth, cell walls thickened, trigones small and not bulging. Underleaves occasionally present on subterranean stem, ovate-semicircular, margins entire. Gynoecial bracts closely imbricate, connate at base, bracteoles lanceolate. Archegonia 10--12. Calyptra purplish-red. Seta ca. 5 mm. Capsule wall exterior layer with nodular thickenings, interior layer with semiannular thickenings. Elaters 2-spiraled, reddish-brown. Spores finely papillose, reddish.

Bare glacial soil; Greenland; Nfld. (Laborador, T. A. Hedderson et al. 2001), Que. (R. M. Schuster and N. Konstantinova (1996); Europe (Austria, Finland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Sweden), Asia (Siberia).

This is a species of Greenland, the European Alps, and High Arctic regions generally.