Plants in thin to dense mats, dark- to yellow-green, glossy. Stems to 6 cm, 2--4 mm wide, prostrate, rarely radiculose ventrally. Leaves rigid, usually distant, wide-spreading to squarrose, flat or somewhat concave, smooth or plicate, symmetric or nearly so, 1--2 × 0.3--0.6 mm, ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, rarely narrowly ovate, acuminate or abruptly narrowed to an acute or rarely subobtuse apex, margins very narrowly recurved almost to apex, sometimes plane, serrulate to serrate throughout; costa lacking or short and double; cells smooth or prorate at distal ends on abaxial leaf surface; median cells 66--120 × 3--7 µm; alar cells 37--63 × 5--9 µm, long- to short-rectangular or rarely quadrate, in 1--3 rows with 1--5 cells in the marginal rows. Sexual condition dioicous. Perigonia small, bracts ovate, acute; Perichaetia small, bracts lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Seta reddish brown, flexuose, 0.7--1.2 cm. Capsule reddish brown, cernuous, 1--1.5 mm, oblong-ovoid, arcuate, when dry slightly contracted below mouth and wrinkled at neck; opercula obliquely long-rostrate, 0.5--1 mm. Spores 11--13 µm.

In shade, siliceous or calcareous soil and rock; 40--1500 m; Ala., Ariz., Ark., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.; Mexico; West Indies; Central and South America; Asia; East Indies.

These plants are typically glossy, complanate-foliate with the leaves stiff, distant, seldom overlapping, wide-spreading to squarrose, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate with acute to subobtuse apices, narrowly recurved margins nearly to apex and poorly differentiated alar cells in 1--3 rows with 1--5 short-rectangular cells in the marginal rows. This is a polymorphic species common in the southeastern and south-central United States, particularly the Ozark Mountain region. It has often been confused with the more northern T. deplanatum; for distinctions see the discussion under that species. Taxiphyllum taxirameum is the most common species of Taxiphyllum in Latin America and it is especially prevalent in parts of Mexico and the West Indies.