Stems to 14 cm, simple or sparingly branched. Leaves (9--)12--14(--19) mm, coarsely toothed. Capsule 5--8 × 1.5--2.2 mm, often ± zygomorphic and widest below the middle, suberect to inclined to almost horizontal.

Soil, moist woods; common in the lowlands, but extending to 1370 m; B.C.; s Alaska, Oreg., Wash.

Polytrichastrum alpinum var. sylvaticum is a robust plant of the Pacific Northwest with stems to 14 cm high, sharply serrate leaves to as much as 19 mm, and large, plump, cylindric capsules, often ± zygomorphic. The type of P. sylvaticum was collected by Menzies somewhere on the Northwest coast; Pogonatum macounii was collected in a ravine at 1370 m on Vancouver Is. The var. campanulatum has large, ovoid-gibbous, almost horizontal capsules and is probably distinct, but its distribution is poorly understood.