It grows in wet habitat, such as bogs, ponds, moist spots on the tundra, and long-standing borrow pits.

The sporing cone-bearing stems stand erect in July and August, a few centimeters tall.

The leaves are curving, green, narrow, and sharply pointed, measuring a few millimeters long.

[4] This club moss is an arctic-alpine species with a circumpolar boreal and montane distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the British Isles it is classified as a UK Priority Species as it is rare and seems to be on the decline.