Leaves: ovate-lanceolate to short-subulate from an ovate or obovate base, entire at apex; costa percurrent or subpercurrent. Seta: short, 4–6 mm. Capsule: not or little inclined, slightly curved; neck equaling the urn in length, cylindric or obovate, not strumose but tapering instead; peristome teeth entire or perforate near apex, not fragile, commonly persistent; annulus compound, revoluble. Phenology: Capsules mature late summer–fall.
Soil, gravel, humus, crevices. generally alpine, high elevations. Greenland, Alaska, n Europe, c Asia (Kazakhstan, Mongolia).
I. A. Worley and Z. Iwatsuki (1970) reported both Trematodon brevicollis and T. ambiguus from Alaska.