Autoicous. Dense tufts on soil and rock. Stems erect, 2–4 (–8) mm long, simple in sterile plants, branching near apex in fertile plants, pale brown, covered near base with yellow-brown rhizoids. Leaves in 5 ±distinct ranks, erect when moist, not altered when dry, lanceolate to triangular-lanceolate, 0.5–1.8 mm long, 0.1–0.3 mm wide; apices acuminate; costae long-excurrent to form an smooth hyaline awn; margins serrulate in apical half, narrowly recurved or plane, without a border; laminal cells oblong to linear, 20–55 μm long, 4–12 μm wide, unistratose, smooth to prorate; alar cells not differentiated. Setae 2–6 mm long, pale yellow-brown. Capsules erect or inclined, globose or nearly so, symmetric, 1–1.3 mm long. Opercula oblique-rostrate, 0.5–0.7 mm long. Peristome absent.
HNF, VAlp. In the alpine zone west from Lake Mountain, typically on bare ground between grass tussocks and near streams. Also NSW and ACT. New Zealand.
