Plants in thin, loose mats, light- to yellowish green, glossy. Stems to 25 × 1--3 mm, complanate, simple or irregularly branched. Leaves semi-flaccid to rigid, distant, squarrose, complanate, smooth, 0.3--1.8 × 0.2--0.6 mm, ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, often cultriform, asymmetric, acuminate; margins plane or narrowly recurved at base, serrate to serrulate distally, serrulate to entire proximally; costa usually strong, short and double; median cells smooth, 48--100 × 4--7 µm; alar cells undifferentiated or 1--3 marginal cells quadrate to rectangular. Specialized asexual reproduction often present as twisted-vermiform bodies clustered in leaf axils at or near stem apices, 0.1--0.5 mm, yellowish green, elongate, composed of 2--4 layers of smooth cells, with 1--5 acute, erect teeth at apex. Sexual condition autoicous. [Seta to 1 cm. Capsule horizontal, ovoid, ca. 1.3 mm; operculum conic. Spores not reported.]

Sporophytes unknown in North America. Soil, humus banks, sandstone bluffs, and frequently on cliff ledges containing mica; 135--1675 m; N.B., Nfld, N.S., Ont., Que.; Ark., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mich., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va.; Mexico (Jalisco, Veracruz, Zacatecas); West Indies (Dominican Republic); Central America (Costa Rica); South America (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela); Asia; Australia.

Pseudotaxiphyllum distichaceum is easily confused with P. elegans, especially when propagula are not present. The asymmetric, often cultriform leaves of P. distichaceum will distinguish it from P. elegans, which has symmetric leaves that are never cultriform. When propagula are present, their location on the stems, as well as their morphology, are distinctly different in the two species. Pseudotaxiphyllum distichaceum has propagula that are elongate, twisted-vermiform with 1--5 acute teeth at the apices, and occur in the leaf axils at or near the stem apices; while P. elegans has propagula in the leaf axils always below the stem apices, and they resemble the parent plant, being much smaller, possessing small leaf-like structures along their stems.