Plants usually in open turfs and mats, usually yellow-green. Stems (0.3--)0.6--1.4(--4) cm. Leaves erectopatent to contorted or somewhat crisped when dry, rarely forming a comal tuft, patent to erectopatent to spreading when wet, 0.35--2.8 mm, distal margins usually toothed; costae percurrent to slightly excurrent. Seta pale yellow to yellow-orange. Capsule slightly inclined to erect, usually arcuate, (1--)1.7--2.3(--3.7) mm, pale brown to yellow (golden)-orange, smooth to sulcate when dry, weakly strumose to struma absent. Peristome teeth usually bordered, usually with 8--16 articulations.

Capsules mature early summer--late fall. Soil, tree bases, rock ledges, often on burned ground; low to montane elevations; Ariz., Calif., N. Mex., Tex.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; n South America; Eurasia; Africa.

J. S. Burley and N. M. Pritchard (1990) note that this species is mainly tropical to sub-tropical, and frequently at higher elevations within these regions, but also note its distribution in southwestern North America.