Plants varying from slender to medium-sized and in color from pale green, dark green to golden-brown; length various; branching pinnate to irregular, reclining to suberect. Leaves usually falcate, sometimes strongly; alar cells numerous to few, usually not excavate.

Producing sporophytes late summer--fall, capsules often mature spring. Terrestrial, epiphytic, epilithic; 0--4000 m; Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ark., Colo., Conn., Del., Ill., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Mont., N.Y., N.C., Pa., S.Dak., Vt., Tex., Wash., Wis.; Mexico; South America; Eurasia; Africa; Atlantic Islands; Pacific Islands (New Zealand); Australia.

Hypnum cupressiforme var. cupressiforme is used as a catch-all to accommodate specimens that cannot be placed in another of the 9 varieties recognized by H. Ando or those accepted here.