Plants 3-6(-12) cm. Stems dark brown. Leaves green, yellowish green, or reddish brown, strongly reflexed to arcuate-recurved when moist forming bowl-like or cylindric pockets, orbicular, broadly obovate, or spatulate, 2-3 mm; base short-decurrent; margins recurved, 1-stratose; apex rounded or obtuse, apiculate or cuspidate, apiculus sharp, cusp lightly toothed; costa percurrent or excurrent; medial laminal cells elongate or short-elongate, (50-)60-90(-110) µm, in diagonal rows, not or weakly collenchymatous; marginal cells linear or short-linear, in 2-4 rows. Sexual condition dioicous. Seta red or reddish brown, 1.5-4 cm. Capsule yellowish green or light green, elliptic, 2-3 mm. Spores 25-50 µm.

Capsules mature summer. Wet tundra soil in rich fens and marshes, often calcareous; low to moderate elevations; Greenland; B.C., Man., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Yukon; Alaska; Europe.

Its strongly reflexed to arcuate-recurved leaf margins make Cinclidium latifolium one of the most distinctive mosses in the northern region.