Leaves obovate to spatulate, apex broadly acute or occasionally rounded, short-awned, margins plane or rarely weakly recurved proximally, weakly bordered distally with 2--4 rows of slightly thicker-walled cells; costa excurrent, lacking an adaxial pad of cells, distally narrow, 2 cells across the convex or plane adaxial surface; distal laminal cells irregularly hexagonal, width 18--22(--27) µm wide, 1:1, smooth. Sexual condition autoicous. Sporophytes exerted. Seta 0.25--0.4(--0.6) cm. Capsules stegocarpic, not systylius, urceolate or obovate, erect and nearly straight, urn 0.6--1 mm; peristome absent; operculum 0.3--0.5 mm. Spores 25--30 µm, spheric, densely papillose.

Capsules mature fall--spring. Soil, calcareous soil with grasses, fields, lawns, roadsides; low to moderate elevations; B.C., Ont., N.B., N.S., Que., Sask.; Conn., Ill., Maine, Mass., Md., Mich., Minn., N.J., N.Y., Pa., R.I., Vt., Wash., Wis.; s South America; Europe; Asia; n Africa; Atlantic Islands; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia.

Both Tortula truncata and T. modica may have distinct denticulations near the leaf apex, more pronounced in the latter, which usually has papillose laminae.