Plants: medium-sized to large, green, yellow-green, or golden brown, glossy. Stems: 3–5 cm, branches creeping. Leaves: erect to erect-spreading, oblong-ovate, tapering gradually to apex, 1.5–2 mm; margins plane; apex sometimes apiculate; alar cells conspicuously enlarged, inflated, yellow to yellow-orange or unpigmented, in several rows, supra-alar cells few, rhomboid; laminal cells flexuose. : Specialized asexual reproduction absent. Seta: 1–2 cm. Capsule: inclined to horizontal, 1–1.2 mm. Phenology: Capsules mature spring.
Wet rock, by streams, cliffs. low to moderate elevations. Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ala., Conn., Ga., Ky., Md., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., Tenn., Vt., W.Va. Discussion.