Plants medium-sized to large, in moderately loose mats, green to golden green. Stems to 5 cm, leafy shoots 0.8-1.2 mm wide, branches julaceous. Stem leaves closely imbricate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1-2 × 0.5-1.2 mm; margins often widely incurved distally, entire or with serrulations restricted to acumen; apex acute to rounded or cuspidate, occasionally acuminate; alar cells quadrate to short-rectangular, 9-12 × 10-13 µm, walls moderately thick, region small, indistinctly delimited; laminal cells 45-60 × 4-7 µm; basal juxtacostal cells elongate, 10-20 × 5-7 µm. Seta 0.9-1.6 cm, roughened throughout. Capsule inclined. Spores 15-19 µm.

Sub aqua tic habitats; low to high elevations (0-2000 m); B.C.; Calif., Nev., Oreg., Wash.

Scleropodium occidentale is morphologically and ecologically similar to S. obtusifolium; however, it differs in having a longer, more robust costa that ends in a spine, and in DNA markers. It also often has acute leaf apices unlike the rounded apex typical of S. obtusifolium. The branches are tumid and often arching.