Plants small, whitish, somewhat glossy. Stems 0.5-2 cm. Leaves ± erect, , lanceolate, 0.9-1.5 mm; margins serrulate to serrate in distal 1/3; costa subpercurrent; distal medial laminal cells linear-rhomboidal, vermicular, 60-100µm, walls thin. Specialized asexual reproduction usually present; axillary gemmae single, bulbiform, red, darker to black when dry, leaf primordia at apex and more proximally, laminate, . Sexual condition unknown, presumed dioicous. Sporophytes unknown.

Acid, gravelly or sandy disturbed soil, ditches; low to high elevations; Yukon; Alaska; c Asia.

Pohlia beringiensis has cherry red stems with erect, whitish leaves and red bulbiform axillary gemmae. The gemmae are much like those of P. drummondii, but are even more red and contrast conspicuously with the whitish leaves. The organic-poor substrates on which P. beringiensis occurs are quite different from the relatively humic soils on which P. drummondii occurs.