Dioicous. Dense or loose tufts on soil or rock. Plants brownish- or olive-green. Stems simple or branched, 2–10 mm tall, orange or brown, not tomentose. Leaves spreading when moist, incurved to contorted when dry, oblong to narrowly lanceolate from an oblong base, 0.8–2.5 mm long, 0.2–0.4 mm wide, caniculate; apex acute or acuminate; costa percurrent; margins entire, slightly reflexed, often bistratose; laminal cells in apical half subquadrate, isodiametric, mostly 8–12 μm wide, pluripapillose; basal cells rectangular, hyaline, 12–60 μm long, 7–20 μm wide near costa, forming a distinct patch extending to c. ¼ the leaf length throughout costa to margin. Seta 5–10 mm long, reddish, untwisted. Capsule erect, oblong-ellipsoid, straight, 1–2 mm long, brown. Operculum obliquely-rostrate, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Peristome of 16 divided teeth, reddish or brown, straight.
GipP, WaP, WPro. Mostly in dry sclerophyll forest or woodland, among rocky slopes and beside rocky creeks in the western half of the state, but with occasional records in the east. Also WA, SA, NSW, ACT and Tas. New Zealand, the Americas, Europe and northern and southern Africa.
