Thallus of small tortuose squamules to 7 mm tall, forming a rough thick crust or scattered, the squamules more or less dichotomously dissected, dull dark brown, more greening when wet; lower cortex of vertically oriented dense hyphae. Perithecia immersed in the lobes, the ostiole only slightly visible; the wall pale brown; asci subcylindrical to saccate; spores 2, becoming brown, muriform with numerous cells, 42-66 x 18-24 µ.

Reactions: thallus K— , C—, P—; hymenium 1+ blue, asci 1+ coppery red.

Contents: not known.

This species grows on rocks on trickle surfaces.

It is a North American species recorded from Nevada, Montana, and Baffin Island. It also occurs in Alberta at altitudes of 7950 ft and 5900 ft according to specimens collected by C. D. Bird and collaborators. Recently, on the 1972 foray of the American Lichenological and Bryological Society foray to Isle Royale, Michigan, Dr. Clifford Wetmore collected it on Davidson Island. The distribution is so scantily known that it is difficult to assess. It seems suggestive of those species which have a western range and disjunct occurrences either in the eastern Arctic or in the Lake Superior region. Yet this species appears to combine both range types.