Fontinalis squamosaHedw.

WFO wfo-0001182151 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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.

Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by George Greiff
fig. a George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-16 / obs. 158601192
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by George Greiff
fig. b George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44638982
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by George Greiff
fig. c George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44639021
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by Helen Waterman
fig. d Helen Waterman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 121976719
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by Wouter Van Landuyt
fig. e Wouter Van Landuyt, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197236625
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by George Greiff
fig. f George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44639004
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by Helen Waterman
fig. g Helen Waterman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 121973521
Fontinalis squamosa, photographed by Helen Waterman
fig. h Helen Waterman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 121973532

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 38 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -8.7 °C -0.2 °C 5.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.7 °C 17.8 °C 29.1 °C
Annual rainfall 683 mm 1,278 mm 1,708 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 40 mm 246 mm 304 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 38 research-grade observations of Fontinalis squamosa 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 17 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.

  • Fontinalis arduennensis Grav.
  • Fontinalis dalecarlica subsp. prageri (Warnst.) Podp.
  • Fontinalis dixonii Cardot
  • Fontinalis prageri Warnst.
  • Fontinalis squamosa f. angustifolia (Luisier) Podp.
  • Fontinalis squamosa f. intorta (Luisier) Podp.
  • Fontinalis squamosa f. latifolia Grav.
  • Fontinalis squamosa subsp. dixonii (Cardot) Dixon
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. angustifolia Luisier
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. capillaris Luisier
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. corsica Cardot
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. curnowii Cardot
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. dixonii (Cardot) A.J.E.Sm.
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. intorta Luisier
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. latifolia (Grav.) Delogne
  • Fontinalis squamosa var. tumida Loeske
  • Pilotrichum squamosum (Hedw.) Müll.Hal.

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.

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.