Plants: in soft, loose mats. Stems: creeping; central strand cells small, walls thin; paraphyllia narrowly lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate; axillary hair basal cell 1, elongate, rectangular to long-rectangular, brown, distal cells elongate. Stem: leaves 0.8–1.6 mm wide; alar cells few; medial laminal cells 30–60 × 5–9 µm, 4–8:1. Perichaetial: leaves lanceolate. Seta: elongate, 2–4.5 cm. Capsule: 1.5–2 mm, constricted below mouth when dry; annulus separating, 2- or 3-seriate; operculum conic; exostome yellow-brown, external surface cross striolate basally, papillose distally, internal surface trabeculate. Spores: finely roughened.

Humus, litter, mineral-rich and eutrophic wet meadows and swamps, under dense grass and sedge vegetation. low to high elevations (0-3000 m). Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon, Ala., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Mexico, Central America, Europe.

The morphology of Pseudocampylium radicale may be misleading, since the species shares with Campylium (in the broad sense) spreading to squarrose stem leaves. Specimens with non-squarrose leaves also bear much resemblance to Hygroamblystegium varium var. humile, which occurs in similar habitats. Pseudocampylium radicale may be distinguished from the latter by the decurrency of the stem leaves.