Japan Flora: Plant up to 15 cm tall, with straight, dichotomously branched stems, especially at the base, gathered in bundles. Stems of previous years carmine-red. Vegetative branches uniformly covered with imbricately overlapping phyllodia up to 1.5 mm in diameter. Phyllodia oblong-obovate, 1.5 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, keeled, with sparse denticles and cilia, furnished with a white spinule at the apex. Strobiloid up to 3 cm long, 4-angled, not clearly delimited from the branch and somewhat thicker than it. Sporophylloids somewhat larger than phyllodia (2 mm long, 0.8 mm wide), distinctly finely ciliate. Microspore spermoderm with anastomosing projections. (Table II).

Okhotsk, Aldan, Dauria, Upper Zeya, Lower Zeya, Amur — On rocks in river valleys and in light coniferous forests, in dry places, sometimes creating a continuous cover. VIII-IX. — General distribution: Western and Eastern Siberia; Mongolia, Japan-China.