It is widely distributed across Madeira and is similarly frequent on most of the Canary Islands, though it is rarer on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

It typically grows as an epiphyte on the bark of trees, but can also be found on shaded rocks and humid soil amongst leaf litter.

[4] Frullania polysticta is a robust, irregularly branched, mat-forming liverwort that is light green to reddish brown in colour.

[1][5][7] It has been recorded growing in association with other bryophytes, including Dicranum scottianum, Frullania dilatata, Frullania azorica, Frullania teneriffae, Kurzia trichoclados, Leucodon canariensis, Metzgeria consanguinea, Metzgeria furcata, Plagiochila bifaria, Radula lindenbergiana, Saccogyna viticulosa, and Sematophyllum substrumulosum, and in association with lichens such as Anaptychia ciliaris, Degelia plumbea, Lobaria pulmonaria, and Leptogium species.

[8] Frullania polysticta is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature under criterion A3c, based on its decreasing population and observed habitat loss.