Dioicous. Asexual propagules absent. Tufts on rock or soil over rock, green or yellow. Stems branched by innovations, 3–8 mm long, pale brown, with sparse brown rhizoids. Leaves imbricate, erect when moist and dry, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, to 1 mm long, c. 0.25 mm wide, concave; apex acuminate; costa strong, excurrent as a hairpoint; margin entire, plane, without a distinct border; laminal cells in apical half rhomboidal-hexagonal, 25–35 μm long, 10–12 μm wide, short-rectangular and narrower in 1–2 marginal rows; basal laminal cells rectangular. Seta 5–15 mm long, yellow toward capsule, reddish toward base. Capsules inclined or horizontal, obovoid-cylindric or obloid-ellipsoid, 2–2.5 mm long, symmetric, dark reddish brown. Operculum conic, short rostellate.
On limestone rock in the far south-west of the state and occasionally on sand among coastal vegetation elsewhere. All states and territories. New Zealand.
