Loose tufts on soil or rock. Stems 15–40 mm tall. Leaves squarrose when moist, loosely appressed and twisted when dry, lanceolate from a wide ovate long-decurrent base, 2–3 mm long, arched, tightly carinate toward apex; apex acuminate; costa percurrent or excurrent; margin slightly undulate, recurved in basal half; laminal cells in apical half hexagonal, isodiametric, c. 6–7 μm wide, papillose; basal laminal cells near costa rectangular, bearing two rows of papillae, other cells near base similar to those toward apex. Sporophyte unknown.
VVP, Gold, CVU, GGr, HNF. Widespread from the foothills on the inland side of the Great Dividing Range and south, among exposed rocks and outcrops or on bare ground beneath woodland, dry sclerophyll forest, beside waterways or rarely in the alpine zone. Also WA, SA, NSW and Tas.
