Plants: small, dark green, not glossy. Stems: 0.3–1 cm. Leaves: erect-spreading to spreading, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 mm; base not or scarcely decurrent; margins weakly serrulate in distal 1/3; apex acute or short-acuminate; costa ending well before apex; distal medial laminal cells laxly and broadly rhomboidal, 60–100 µm, walls thin. : Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Sexual: condition dioicous; perigonial leaves ovate; perichaetial leaves scarcely differentiated, lanceolate. Seta: orange-brown. Capsule: inclined ± 180°, brown to red-brown, sometimes stramineous, short-pyriform to urceolate, neck less than 1/3 urn length; exothecial cells isodiametric, walls sinuate; stomata immersed; annulus absent; operculum short- to long-conic; exostome teeth dark brown to red-brown, triangular-acute; endostome yellow to yellow-brown, basal membrane 1/2 exostome length or slightly longer, segments tapered apically, distinctly keeled, broadly perforate, cilia long, nodulose. Spores: 13–18 µm, finely roughened. Phenology: Capsules mature spring (Apr–Jun).
Disturbed clay or rarely sandy soil, path banks, along streams. low elevations. Ont., Ark., Ill., Ind., Maine, Md., Mich., N.Y., N.C., Vt., Va., W.Va., Europe.
Pohlia melanodon has soft, dark green, rather broad ovate-lanceolate leaves with lax, thin-walled cells. The species does not produce elongate sterile cushions as does P. wahlenbergii; even when sterile, the plants have short stems and are rather densely leafy. Pohlia melanodon is more common in eastern North America than collections indicate; it is often sterile and for that reason rarely collected. The exothecial cell walls of capsules of this species are somewhat collenchymatous.