Plants in soft or fairly rigid, generally loose, pale-green or brownish mats. Branches spreading, usually somewhat curved at the tips. Stem leaves clearly differentiated, 0.8--1.2 mm, distinctly longer than broad, somewhat obliquely acuminate and subsecund at the tips. Branch leaves remote to ± crowded, loosely erect, usually somewhat oblique and subsecund at tips, smooth or slightly plicate, 0.5--0.8 mm, ovate-lanceolate, apex blunt or acute; margins plane to somewhat recurved proximally, entire to subserrulate distally; costa ending near apex; distal laminal cells 7--9 μm, papillose abaxially. Seta 7--12 mm, orange-brown to red. Capsule 2--3 mm, subcylindric, somewhat curved, brown to yellow-brown; operculum short to occasionally rather high-conic; annulus composed of 2(--3) rows of cells; exostome teeth yellowish to brownish yellow, cross-striolate at base; endostome segments somewhat shorter than exostome teeth. Spores 9--13 μm, very finely papillose or nearly smooth.

Capsules mature Mar.--Nov. Bases and lower trunks of hardwood and coniferous trees, soil around bases of trees, logs, occasionally on rocks, mostly in low areas near streams and creeks, occasionally on roofs; 10--1100 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask.; Ala., Alaska, Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Ind., Iowa, La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., N.C. (?), Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak, Ohio, Oreg., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis.; Europe; Asia; Africa.

Leskea polycarpa is distinguished by branches typically curved at the tips, clearly differentiated stem leaves that are distinctly longer than wide and somewhat oblique and subsecund at tips, and capsules that are subcylindric and curved.