Neckera pennataHedw.

neckera moss

WFO wfo-0001188378 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Neckera pennata, photographed by Pierre Cartier
fig. a Pierre Cartier, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 202064697
Neckera pennata, photographed by Steven Lamonde
fig. b Steven Lamonde, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199194224
Neckera pennata, photographed by Steven Lamonde
fig. c Steven Lamonde, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198952953
Neckera pennata, photographed by Игорь Васильев
fig. d Игорь Васильев, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190797684
Neckera pennata, photographed by Bex Goreham
fig. e Bex Goreham, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189755143
Neckera pennata, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. f Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188411525
Neckera pennata, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. g Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185391119
Neckera pennata, photographed by Randal
fig. h Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 184545598

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 2,013 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -17.1 °C -10.9 °C -5.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.4 °C 22.9 °C 25.8 °C
Annual rainfall 637 mm 927 mm 1,696 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 97 mm 169 mm 337 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,013 research-grade observations of Neckera pennata 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 12 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.

  • Cryptopodia pennata (Hedw.) Hampe
  • Cryptopodium pennatum (Hedw.) Fürnr.
  • Daltonia pennata (Hedw.) Arn.
  • Distichia pennata (Hedw.) Brid.
  • Eleutera pennata (Hedw.) Stuntz
  • Fontinalis pennata (Hedw.) Jolycl.
  • Hypnum pennatum (Hedw.) Hoffm. ex Funck
  • Neckera abbreviata Cardot
  • Neckera pennata f. saxicola (Schlieph.) Podp.
  • Neckera pennata var. saxicola Schlieph.
  • Pilotrichum pennatum (Hedw.) P.Beauv.
  • Rhystophyllum pennatum (Hedw.) E.Britton

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.