Dicranum scoparium (Broom Moss)

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Dicranum scoparium, photographed by Andreas Stiller — fig. a Andreas Stiller, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205448181

Dicranum scoparium, photographed by Braden J. Judson — fig. b Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197068770

Dicranum scoparium, photographed by Christian Berg — fig. c Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194831232

Dicranum scoparium, photographed by Violet T. — fig. e Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191202250

Dicranum scoparium, photographed by Mila C. — fig. f Mila C., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190497860

Dicranum scoparium, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma — fig. h Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188424508

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 2,031 observations

Condition	5th percentile	Median	95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low	-11.2 °C	-2.0 °C	3.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high	17.3 °C	22.3 °C	31.0 °C
Annual rainfall	596 mm	1,071 mm	2,238 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter	90 mm	182 mm	336 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 2,031 research-grade observations of Dicranum scoparium 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 99 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.

Bryum scoparium (Hedw.) Roucel
Cecalyphum scoparium (Hedw.) P.Beauv.
Dicranodon scoparium (Hedw.) Béhéré
Dicranoloma otii Sakurai
Dicranum alatum (Barnes) Cardot & Thér.
Dicranum angustifolium Kindb.
Dicranum bergeri var. aristatum (H.Winter) P.Syd.
Dicranum bonjeanii subsp. latifolium Podp.
Dicranum bonjeanii var. alatum Barnes
Dicranum canadense Kindb.
Dicranum consobrinum Renauld & Cardot
Dicranum dillenii Taylor
Dicranum hartelii Głow.
Dicranum howellii subsp. angustifolium Kindb.
Dicranum kindbergii Paris
Dicranum latifolium J.J.Amann
Dicranum majus var. recurvatum (Schultz) Schultz
Dicranum mexicanum Schimp.
Dicranum pallidum Bruch & Schimp. ex Müll.Hal.
Dicranum palustre var. alatum (Barnes) Paris
Dicranum palustre var. rupicola H.Müll.
Dicranum recurvatum Schultz
Dicranum rigidifolium Sakurai
Dicranum rigidifolium var. rugulosum Sakurai

and 75 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
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.