This is a species of leafy-liverwort, known from very few localities in Wales or the UK as a whole, but which may well be considerably underrecorded. Recent survey work in Wales has resulted in a number of new records, mostly in species-poor stands of purple moor-grass (Molinia caerulea), but also amongst hummocks of Sphagnum teres in moderately rich fen vegetation .

At first sight the plant appears to have four rows of leaves. In fact it has only two rows - each of the lateral leaves is bilobed, and the smaller of the lobes in each case is folded back, giving the 4-rowed appearance typical of the genus Scapania as a whole. In this case the fold or keel joining the two lobes is markedley arched.