Calcidicranella varia(Hedw.) Bonfim Santos, Fedosov & Jan Kučera

dicranella moss

WFO wfo-1000051894 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Calcidicranella varia, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-04-30 / obs. 125973463
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by agujaceratops
fig. b agujaceratops, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102918640
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by agujaceratops
fig. c agujaceratops, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102918759
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by Jonathan Hughes
fig. d Jonathan Hughes, CC0 1.0 / obs. 118776351
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by Jonathan Hughes
fig. e Jonathan Hughes, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174865594
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by Jonathan Hughes
fig. f Jonathan Hughes, CC0 1.0 / obs. 110835945
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by Helen Waterman
fig. g Helen Waterman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151940816
Calcidicranella varia, photographed by Helen Waterman
fig. h Helen Waterman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151940802

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 53 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.3 °C -5.9 °C 1.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.1 °C 21.3 °C 26.2 °C
Annual rainfall 633 mm 1,048 mm 1,776 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 109 mm 162 mm 340 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 53 research-grade observations of Calcidicranella varia 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 49 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.

  • Anisothecium rubrum (Lindb.) Lindb.
  • Anisothecium varium (Hedw.) Mitt.
  • Anisothecium varium f. elongatum (Debat ex Guinet) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium f. integrifolium (Röll) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium f. irrigatum (H.Müll. ex Limpr.) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium f. majus (Röll) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium f. planifolium (Bott.) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium f. tophaceum (Podp.) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium var. bohemicum (Podp.) Podp.
  • Anisothecium varium var. calaminare (Cardot ex Mönk.) Demaret
  • Anisothecium varium var. irrigatum (H.Müll. ex Limpr.) F.Koppe
  • Aongstroemia chrysea Müll.Hal.
  • Aongstroemia langloisii (Renauld & Cardot) Müll.Hal.
  • Aongstroemia varia (Hedw.) Müll.Hal.
  • Bryum simplex (J.F.Gmel. ex With.) Jolycl.
  • Dicranella chrysea (Müll.Hal.) A.Jaeger
  • Dicranella fallax Wilson ex Braithw.
  • Dicranella langloisii Renauld & Cardot
  • Dicranella rubra Lindb.
  • Dicranella rubra var. calaminaris Cardot ex Mönk.
  • Dicranella simplex (J.F.Gmel. ex With.) Brockm.
  • Dicranella varia (Hedw.) Schimp.
  • Dicranella varia f. integrifolia Röll
  • Dicranella varia f. irrigata H.Müll. ex Limpr.

and 25 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol DIVA7. public domain. 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.