Dioicous or rhizautoicous. Plants yellow-green, gregarious. Stems simple or occasionally branched by innovation, 1–4 (–15) mm long. Leaves erect-spreading when moist, sheathing at base, ±contorted when dry, distinctly shouldered and abruptly tapered from oblong base into subula, to c. 2.5 mm long near stem apex, subula forming 2/3 of total leaf leaf, less than 1 mm long near stem base, concave in base; apex subulate; costa completely filling subula; margin entire or ±denticulate near apex, unistratose or sometimes bistratose near apex; laminal cells of leaf base to c. 65 (–75) μm long, 18 μm wide. Seta 2.5–5 mm long. Capsules erect or inclined, urn obovoid with a long tapering neck equal in length to urn, c. 1.5–1.9 mm long, weakly curved or straight. Peristome teeth undivided of split hallway to base, strongly reflexed when dry, brown. Operculum rostrate from conic base, c. ½ capsule length.
OtR, VAlp. Recorded from the Bogong High Plains, Mount Buffalo and Baw Baw Plateau on wet bare banks of waterways and disturbed soil in the alpine zone. Also NSW, Tas and Macquarie Island. New Zealand and Marion and Prince Edward Islands.
