Plants: 3–10(–15) cm, in loose mats. Stems: brown, erect, simple or sometimes branched distally, not dendroid; rhizoids brown, macronemata mainly proximal, scattered distally, micronemata present. Leaves: green or yellow-green, dark brown when old, crisped and weakly contorted when dry, erect or erect-spreading, often weakly undulate when moist, broadly ovate, elliptic, or sometimes orbicular, (3–)4–6(–7) mm; base not or short-decurrent; margins plane, green or yellow-green, 1-stratose, entire or lightly toothed to below mid leaf, teeth single, blunt or sometimes rounded; apex rounded, obtuse, or rarely retuse, apiculate; costa subpercurrent, ending well before apex, or rarely percurrent, distal abaxial surface smooth; medial laminal cells elongate, often ± rhomboidal, usually 3+:1, (30–)40–80(–110) µm, in diagonal rows, not collenchymatous, walls pitted; marginal cells indistinctly differentiated from medial cells, short-linear or rhomboidal, in 1–2(–3) rows. : Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Sexual: condition dioicous. Seta: single or rarely double, orange-yellow, 2–5.5 cm, flexuose. Capsule: pendent, yellowish brown, ovate, 2–2.5 mm; operculum conic-apiculate; exostome dark brown; endostome yellowish brown. Spores: 31–40 µm. North America, Eurasia, circumtemperate to circumboreal.
Species 2 (1 in the flora). Pseudobryum consists of two species of which one (P. cinclidioides; n = 6) is in the flora area and the other [P. speciosum (Mitten) T. J. Koponen; n = 7] is Asiatic. The latter is differentiated also by leaf characters and polysety.