Pogonatum contortum prefers shady areas of forest and disturbed mineral soil banks. They can range from sea-level to the open areas in alpine elevations.
This is an acrocarpous moss that forms tall turfs of dark green, unbranched plants. A web of green protonema is present when this species is young, which produces scattered small shoots.Once the species matures and the turfs become continuous, the protonema disappears.
The leaves of P. contortum are unbranched and very strongly divergent when humid. However, as the name suggests, the leaves of this species become very contorted when dry and they don’t fold against the stem.
The margin of the lead also has many teeth. A closer look at a cross section of a leaf reveals that the lamellae are smooth and are 2-3 cells high, as seen in this picture.
In this picture, you can see some perigonial plants (note the rosette of leaves). This structure functions as a spash-cup mechanism to disperse sperm.
The sporangia of this species are red-brown and circular in cross-section.
Furthermore, the sporangia can be seen with a sheathing whitish, hairy calyptra