Autoicous or dioicous. Asexual propagules absent. Loose to compact mats on soil, rocks, logs, tree roots and tree ferns, yellow-green. Stems 5–15 mm long, rarely branched, red-brown, with sparse reddish brown rhizoids. Leaves complanate, crisped when dry, oblanceolate to oblong-elliptic, 1.1–2.4 mm long, 0.4–0.75 mm wide, plane; apices apiculate; costa extending to three quarters of leaf length; margins entire or slightly denticulate, with 2–3 rows of more elongate cells forming a distinct border throughout; laminal cells in apical half away from margin hexagonal to hexagonal-rounded, 10–38 μm long, 5–20 μm wide, smooth; basal laminal cells away from margin rectangular to hexagonal, 26–65 μm long, 13–30 μm wide, smooth; marginal cells linear, 57–155 μm long, 5–8 μm wide, smooth. Setae 7–11 mm long, yellow- to red-brown, smooth, twisted anticlockwise. Capsule horizontal to pendent, oblong-cylindric, 0.7–1 mm long, pale red-brown, straight. Calyptra smooth. Operculum long-rostrate from conic base, 0.4–0.7 mm long.
GleP, EGL, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, HFE, VAlp. Also QLD, NSW and Cape Barren Is. New Zealand. In moist sites in wet-sclerophyll forests and rainforests east of Melbourne and south of the Great Dividing Range.
