Plants: coarse, stiff, rarely soft, olive green, often yellow, or dull yellowish green with golden mottling. Stems: to 12 cm, often denuded from base or bearing persistent, shredded leaf bases, rarely leafy throughout, irregularly branched; hyalodermis absent, epidermal cells small, walls thick, similar to subadjacent cortical cells, central stand weak or absent. Leaves: often squarrose distally, straight, sometimes secund, contorted when dry, weakly appressed-imbricate or erect when moist, ovate to broadly ovate, concave, (1–)1.5–2.5(–3) × 1–1.5(–2) mm; margins plane to broadly and shallowly concave, entire or uneven apically, rarely denticulate; apex obtuse or somewhat acute; costa usually double, strong from base with one or both branches reaching mid leaf, or single and very strong, reaching beyond mid leaf, often bearing 1–3 forks; alar cells quadrate, short-rectangular, or irregular, region undifferentiated or imprecisely defined; basal laminal cells usually shorter and wider than medial cells, yellowish, yellow-brown with age, pigmentation often creating radiating sunburst effect around costa base, walls usually strongly incrassate; medial cells linear-flexuose to broadly rhombic-flexuose, (40–)60–120(–170) µm; apical cells usually rounded-quadrate to rhombic; marginal cells very long, 60–250 µm. Sexual: condition dioicous; perichaetial inner leaves linear-lanceolate, ecostate, costa single to mid leaf, or double and short. Seta: red to dark maroon-red, 1.2–2.5 cm. Capsule: with endostome cilia 1–3.
Irrigated, often silt-covered rock in montane streams. moderate to high elevations (1500-3000 m). Alta., B.C., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que., Alaska, Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mich., Mont., N.Mex., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wyo., e Asia (Russian Far East).