Atrichum angustatum(Brid.) Bruch & Schimp.

atrichum moss

WFO wfo-0001192382 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Violet T.
fig. a Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-25 / obs. 200619650
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Bonnie Semmling
fig. b Bonnie Semmling, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186332718
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Mila C.
fig. c Mila C., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185926494
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Violet T.
fig. d Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185440349
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Violet T.
fig. e Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180394400
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. f Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177266575
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. g Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176820662
Atrichum angustatum, photographed by Violet T.
fig. h Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175738710

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Where it actually grows measured, from 892 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.6 °C -2.4 °C 4.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.4 °C 29.4 °C 32.5 °C
Annual rainfall 959 mm 1,229 mm 1,525 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 144 mm 263 mm 313 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 892 research-grade observations of Atrichum angustatum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 23 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Atrichum angustatum f. fallax (Sabr.) Podp.
  • Atrichum angustatum f. minus Podp.
  • Atrichum angustatum f. polysetum (W.Krieg.) Podp.
  • Atrichum angustatum var. angustatum
  • Atrichum angustatum var. plurilamellatum (Jenn.) Frye
  • Atrichum macmillanii (Holz.) Frye
  • Atrichum papillosum (Jenn.) Frye
  • Atrichum xanthopelma (Müll.Hal.) A.Jaeger
  • Catharinea angustata (Brid.) Brid.
  • Catharinea angustata subsp. xanthopelma (Müll.Hal.) Kindb.
  • Catharinea angustata var. fallax Sabr.
  • Catharinea angustata var. macmillanii (Holz.) Cavanagh
  • Catharinea angustata var. minor Hampe
  • Catharinea angustata var. minor W.Krieg.
  • Catharinea angustata var. polyseta W.Krieg.
  • Catharinea macmillanii Holz.
  • Catharinea papillosa Jenn.
  • Catharinea plurilamellata Jenn.
  • Catharinea xanthopelma Müll.Hal.
  • Polytrichum angustatum Brid.
  • Polytrichum angustatum var. atrovirens Griff.
  • Polytrichum angustatum var. majus Griff.
  • Polytrichum cylindricum Sw.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite. It has no native range either: Kew's checklist does not cover this taxon.