Dioicous. Plants medium-sized, slender, rigid, pale to dark green, glossy, erect or ascending, 15–30 mm tall, branched or not. Leaves complanate, asymmetrical, undulate, crisped when dry, straight when moist, in 2 rows of large lateral leaves, 2 dorsal rows and 2 ventral rows. Lateral leaves ovate to oblong, 2.0–2.7 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm wide; apex stout, abruptly apiculate, (200–) 240–300 μm long; base narrowed; margin plane, ±entire or distantly denticulate near the apex, crenulate below; costa weak, short, forked, c. 125 μm wide at the base. Upper and median laminal cells darker, hexagonal to isodiametric, (25–) 45–60 (–80) × 22–38 μm; basal cells oblong-hexagonal, c. 125 × 25 (–45) μm; border stout, wide, porose, 5–7 (–8) thick-walled cells and 50–100 μm wide. Dorsal and ventral leaves smaller. Rhizoids dark reddish, often abundant, to 2.5 mm long, 18–30 μm wide; cells c. 180 μm long; immature rhizoids richly branched, shorter and narrower; cells to 50 μm long.

Perigonia numerous, yellowish; perigonial leaves tightly imbricate. Perichaetial leaves lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, often developing shoulders, 1.1–1.4 mm long, 0.22–0.60 mm wide, acuminate, ecostate. Laminal cells narrowly hexagonal, 45–138 × 25 μm, smaller and narrower towards the margin; border inconspicuous, formed of 1 row of cells c. 3 μm wide. Archegonia 320–350 μm long, 5–14 per perichaetium; paraphyses absent or rare and c. 250 μm long. Calyptra smooth above. Seta 5–8 mm long, papillose. Capsules 1.0–1.5 mm long, erect or inclined; operculum 0.5–0.7 mm long. Peristome: exostome teeth joined and orange to reddish at the base, yellowish above, narrowly furrowed, transversely striolate; basal membrane c. half the height of the teeth; endostome segments c. as long as the teeth; cilia rudimentary. Spores 16–24 μm diameter.

Although fertile collections were not plentiful, most capsules were seen between October and February.

Especially common in coastal and hinterland sites and found on various substrata in many vegetation types.

H.Streimann (2012), Australian Mosses Online 11. Hookeriaceae. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 19 April 2012