Brachythecium rivulareSchimp.

brachythecium moss

WFO wfo-0001155367 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. a Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-01 / obs. 193255537
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Scott Morris
fig. b Scott Morris, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188634949
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Susan Marley
fig. c Susan Marley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181710479
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. d Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174014476
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Ben Deed
fig. e Ben Deed, CC0 1.0 / obs. 126647268
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. f Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 126292292
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Andreas Stiller
fig. g Andreas Stiller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 122703114
Brachythecium rivulare, photographed by Susan Marley
fig. h Susan Marley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102193325

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 276 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.8 °C -3.5 °C 2.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.4 °C 22.1 °C 29.6 °C
Annual rainfall 571 mm 1,052 mm 1,801 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 81 mm 196 mm 330 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 276 research-grade observations of Brachythecium rivulare 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 69 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.

  • Brachythecium albicans subsp. rivulare (Schimp.) Meyl.
  • Brachythecium calliergonoides Broth. ex Ihsiba
  • Brachythecium glaucoviride Müll.Hal.
  • Brachythecium laticuspis Broth. ex Dixon
  • Brachythecium noveboracense Grout
  • Brachythecium permolle Müll.Hal.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. cataractarum (Saut.) Mönk.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. crassirameum (Warnst.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. crispulum E.Bauer
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. flagellare (Röll) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. fluitans (Lamy ex Husn.) Mönk.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. frigidum (Mönk.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. gracilescens (Warnst.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. nitidum (Saut.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. pinnatum (Warnst.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. rugulosum (Warnst.) Warnst.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. schiffneri (Cypers) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. schmiedlianum (E.Bauer) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. simplex Renauld ex Hérib.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. striatum (Głow.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. strictum E.Bauer
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. subsimplex E.Bauer
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. turgescens (Warnst.) Podp.
  • Brachythecium rivulare f. umbrosum (H.Müll. ex Limpr.) Mönk.

and 45 more.

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.