Fontinalis delamarei (Renauld & Cardot) Renauld & Cardot; F. involuta Renauld & Cardot; F. lescurii var. cymbifolia Austin; F. novae-angliae var. cymbifolia (Austin) W. H. Welch; F. waghornei Cardot

Plants to 40 cm, green, yellowish, reddish, or brownish. Stems medium to robust, rigid; stem and branch apices swollen and loosely foliate, sometimes tightly short-attenuate; axillary hairs 500-650 µm, 5-8 cells, basal cell quadrate, red, distal cells long-cylindric, hyaline or reddish. Leaves monomorphic, erect to imbricate when dry or moist, , ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate, concave to tubular-concave, 2.5-5.5 mm; margins erect or plane at base, erect to incurved at apex; apex acute to subtruncate; medial laminal cells , 80-180 × 8-15 µm. Perigonia with leaves 1-1.2 mm. Perichaetia with leaves oval to suborbiculate, 2.4-2.8 mm, apex obtuse. Seta 0.1-0.3 mm. Capsule immersed to slightly emergent, subcylindric to cylindric, 1.5-2.5 mm; operculum obtuse-conic, 1 mm; endostome trellis imperfect to subperfect. Calyptra 1.2-1.5 mm. Spores 12-18 µm.

Rock, boulders, roots in ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, summer dry streams; low to moderate elevations (0-600 m); N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va.

Dry plants of Fontinalis novae-angliae have concave leaves, but plants from fast moving streams sometimes have flat leaves with narrowly reflexed margins when dry. There are two distinct expressions of F. novae-angliae. The typical expression has somewhat lax plants with well-spaced, broad, moderately concave leaves. In the cymbifolium expression the plants are stiff with closely spaced, narrow, tubular-concave leaves. Fontinalis howellii is the only other species in the genus with tubular-concave leaves; however, its stem leaves are keeled-conduplicate.

Fontinalis novae-angliae has been confused with F. sphagnifolia, which differs in having long, tightly attenuate stem and branch apices. Fontinalis dalecarlica and F. novae-angliae have often been confused because both have firm, concave leaves. But F. dalecarlica is a slender species with narrow leaves (stem leaves 0.5-1.2 versus 0.7-2 mm wide) that usually have plane apical leaf margins when moist and reflexed proximal leaf margins when dry.