Plants usually in open turfs and mats, usually 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; costae percurrent to slightly excurrent. Seta pale yellow to yellow-orange. Capsule slightly inclined to erect, usually arcuate, (1-)1.7-2.3(-3.7) mm, pale brown to yellow (golden) orange, smooth to sulcate when dry, weakly strumose to struma absent. Peristome teeth usually bordered, usually with 8-16 articulations.

Capsules mature early summer-late fall. Soil, tree bases, rock ledges, often on burned ground; low to high elevations; Ariz., Calif., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; n South America; Eurasia; Africa.

J. S. Burley and N. M. Pritchard (1990) noted that subsp. stenocarpus is mainly tropical to sub-tropical, and frequently at higher elevations within these regions, but also note its distribution in southwestern North America.