Plants small, bulbiform in shape with distally densely crowded leaves, light green to glaucous, in dense clusters or tufts. Stems above ground erect, 2--5 mm. Leaves 1.5--4 mm; proximal leaves less crowded, ovate with acute tips; margins entire to weakly serrate; distal laminal cells elongate, oblong-hexagonal to short-rhomboidal; proximal laminal cells quadrate to short-rectangular. Sexual condition paroicous with antheridia in naked clusters in axils of distal leaves. Seta short, less than 0.25 mm. Capsule immersed to slightly emergent when mature and fully expanded, pale green, cleistocarpous, globose to ellipsoidal or ovate with a truncate base, 1--1.5 mm long, 1--2 mm in diameter; stomata at base of capsule with a central opening in one guard cell or sometimes imperfectly divided. Spores of two sizes: large, faintly granulose, yellow-brown, 120--160 µm, and small, densely granular, shriveled, 32--73 µm. Calyptra minute, narrowly conic, covering the tip of the capsule, fugacious.

Capsules mature winter. Often found in loose soil at granite outcrop margins in association with Selaginella; known only from a few collections; c Tex. (Bastrop, Brazos, Burnet, Cameron, Gillespie, Llano, and Travis counties); South America (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay).

The North America species, Lorentziella imbricata, is named for the closely imbricate distal leaves. In Texas, fertilization and sporophyte growth occur in the winter months and by late spring little trace of the above-ground plants remain. Spores have been described as angular, probably due to packing and space constraints within the capsule. Stomata have been described as having a single guard cell with a central opening or two guard cells. Careful study of guard cells reveals that most are single-celled with a central opening.