Leaves: ovate to broadly lanceolate, tubulose and stiff; distal margins with a 1-stratose border of elongate cells, distal lamina cells 10–16 µm. Sexual: condition monoicous, either synoicous or autoicous. Sporophytes: often present. Seta: 5–15 mm. Capsule: stegocarpous, systilius; theca wide-mouthed, 1–2.4(–3.5) mm; peristome absent. North America, s South America, Europe, Asia, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia, Antarctica.
Varieties 15 (2 in the flora). In Hennediella heimii, European infraspecific taxa attributed to the flora area are not distinct in the New World (see R. T. Wareham 1939). S. Flowers (1973) may have included H. stanfordensis in his concept of this species, judging from the description, illustrations and his attribution of dioicy. However, like H. stanfordensis, this species may have gemmae borne on proximal rhizoids. This taxon exhibits polymorphisms (discussed by Wareham) with considerable variation in differentiation of the leaf border of elongate cells and marginal dentition, the distal cell ornamentation, and in length of capsule. It may be confused with Tortula obtusifolia but that species has no trace of marginal dentition and is yellow in KOH.