Plants: in dense tufts, glaucous or yellowish green. Stems: 0.5–4 cm. Leaves: erect-appressed to laxly erect when dry, erect-spreading to spreading recurved or somewhat secund when moist, narrowly lanceolate, 3–8 mm; base sheathing, shoulders well developed, delicate, often eroded; margins plane or weakly revolute, serrulate distally, teeth paired; apex acuminate, subulate, fragile, frequently broken; costa excurrent, prominent in distal limb, distal abaxial surface rough; basal laminal cell walls thin; distal cells 10–25 × 5–6 µm, prorulae high. Sexual: condition apparently dioicous. Sporophytes: unknown.
Cliff crevices, thin soil on canyon ledges, base of boulders. high elevations (2000-3300 m). Ariz., Colo., N.Mex., N.Dak., Mexico, Central America, South America.