Plants in open to dense tufts, turfs, or mats, green, dark green, to brownish green, rarely yellow-green. Stems (0.3-)0.6-1.4(-4) cm. Leaves erect-patent to contorted or somewhat crisped when dry, rarely forming a comal tuft, patent to erect-patent to spreading when wet, 0.35-2.8 mm, distal margins usually toothed; costa percurrent to slightly excurrent. Seta usually red to dark brown. Capsule usually inclined to horizontal, (0.8-)1.3-1.8(-3) mm, usually arcuate, red to red-brown to purplish to, occasionally, light brown, deeply sulcate when dry, usually strumose, occasionally light brown. Peristome teeth usually bordered, usually with 8-16 articulations.

Capsules mature early summer-late fall. Various habitats, but most common on open soil, also rock ledges, tree bases, roof tops, old wood, a common colonizer of soil following fires; low to high elevations; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Mexico; Eurasia; Pacific Islands (Hawaii).