Grimmia pulvinata (pulvinate dry rock moss)

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Grimmia pulvinata, photographed by Michel Langeveld — fig. a Michel Langeveld, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-08 / obs. 204461029

Grimmia pulvinata, photographed by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas — fig. b Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202961288

Grimmia pulvinata, photographed by Tomas Pocius — fig. c Tomas Pocius, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202419813

Grimmia pulvinata, photographed by Stephen James McWilliam — fig. d Stephen James McWilliam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201824639

Grimmia pulvinata, photographed by Susan Marley — fig. g Susan Marley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197068209

Grimmia pulvinata, photographed by Thomas Koffel — fig. h Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196859330

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 1,946 observations

Condition	5th percentile	Median	95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low	-5.0 °C	0.5 °C	4.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high	17.8 °C	22.3 °C	28.4 °C
Annual rainfall	554 mm	782 mm	1,482 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter	71 mm	148 mm	257 mm

It is found where winters bring light 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 1,946 research-grade observations of Grimmia pulvinata 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 84 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 pulvinatum (Hedw.) With.
Campylopus cribrosus (Brid.) Brid.
Campylopus pulvinatus (Hedw.) Brid.
Codriophorus pulvinatus (Hedw.) P.Beauv.
Dicranum africanum (Hedw.) F.Weber & D.Mohr
Dicranum cribrosum Brid.
Dicranum pulvinatum (Hedw.) Sw. ex Lag., D.García & Clemente
Dicranum pulvinatum var. africanum (Hedw.) Schleich.
Dicranum pulvinatum var. muticum Chevall.
Dryptodon obtusus Brid.
Dryptodon pulvinatus (Hedw.) Brid.
Dryptodon pulvinatus var. canus Hartm.
Dryptodon pulvinatus var. crinitus Bréb.
Eugrimmia pulvinata (Hedw.) Buyss.
Fissidens africanus (Hedw.) Brid.
Fissidens pulvinatus Hedw.
Fissidens pulvinatus var. africanus Hedw.
Fissidens pulvinatus var. communis Hedw.
Grimmia africana (Hedw.) Arn.
Grimmia ahmadiana Nog.
Grimmia apiculata var. obtusa Schimp.
Grimmia auresia Besch.
Grimmia austropulvinata Müll.Hal.
Grimmia callosa Müll.Hal. & Hampe

and 60 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.