Plants: medium-sized to large, in loose mats, green to yellowish or brownish. Stems: to 10 cm, leafy shoots 0.5–1 mm wide, branches julaceous and tumid to distantly foliate. Stem: leaves closely imbricate to distant, broadly ovate to ovate-oblong, 0.9–1.5(–2) × 0.3–1(–1.2) mm; margins subentire proximally, serrulate distally; apex abruptly narrowed to short acumen or apiculus; alar cells quadrate, 10–12 µm, walls moderately thin, region undifferentiated or small; laminal cells 35–65(–90) × 3–5 µm; basal juxtacostal cells elongate, 10–25 × 5–8 µm. Seta: 1–2 cm, strongly roughened throughout. Capsule: inclined to horizontal. Spores: 11–14 µm. North America, nw Mexico, w Eurasia, n Africa, Atlantic Islands.
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Scleropodium touretii is recognized by its tumid and turgid foliage, and by short but conspicuous leaf apices that are filiform and often squarrose. Scleropodium colpophyllum is often treated as a separate species [D. H. Norris and J. R. Shevock (2004) and L. E. Anderson et al. (1990)], while E. Lawton (1967) treated it as a variety of S. touretii. The latter point of view is accepted here because phenotypes with loosely arranged leaves are known also in S. cespitans and S. obtusifolium. Loosely foliate shoots can be found inside extensive mats of otherwise typical and well-developed S. touretii, and var. colpophyllum occurs usually in more mesic and shaded habitats than var. touretii; those are sites where many mosses develop looser foliage. The basal juxtacostal cells sometimes have one row of larger quadrate cells below them.
Stems: with leafy shoots 0.5–1 mm wide, branches sometimes julaceous, loosely foliate, straight to curved. Stem: leaves moderately concave, 0.9–1.6 × 0.4–0.9 mm.
Soil banks, soil over rock, concrete, rotten logs. moderate elevations (300-1000 m). B.C., Calif., Oreg., Wash., Mexico (Baja California, Durango). Discussion.