Plants: in thin mats, light green to yellowish. Stems: 3 cm, 1.5–3 mm wide, creeping to ascending. Leaves: wide-spreading in several rows, not plicate, 1–2.5 × 0.5–0.9 mm; base not decurrent or 1–3 cells indistinctly decurrent; margins serrulate to serrate; alar cells quadrate to short-rectangular, sometimes rounded to oval and inflated, 17–48 × 12–26 µm, green; basal laminal cell walls pitted, indistinctly pitted distally, sometimes pits absent; medial cells 30–70 × 5–7 µm. Sexual: condition autoicous. Seta: light brown to red, 1.5–2.5 cm. Capsule: inclined, light brown to reddish, cylindric, strongly arcuate, 2–3.5 × 0.5–0.8 mm, contracted below mouth when dry; operculum conic, 0.4–0.6 mm. Spores: 12–22 µm. Phenology: Capsules mature summer.
Coniferous or Alnus-Acer woods, rotten logs, base of trees. moderate to high elevations (300-1900 m). Alta., B.C., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash., Europe, Asia.
Herzogiella seligeri is distinguished by the wide-spreading leaves that appear in several rows and the long (2–3.5 mm), arcuate capsules. The species occurs in the flora area only in northwestern North America west of the Rocky Mountains at elevations usually below 900 m.