Orthothecium rufescens(Dicks. ex Brid.) Schimp.

orthothecium moss

WFO wfo-0001189104 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-01 / obs. 195027508
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. b Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 79158780
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Ljaž
fig. c Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190009141
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Ljaž
fig. d Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190015598
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Ljaž
fig. e Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190012111
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Ljaž
fig. f Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187258495
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by carnifex
fig. g carnifex, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156031935
Orthothecium rufescens, photographed by Jacek Pietruszewski
fig. h Jacek Pietruszewski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 123633248

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 294 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.1 °C -8.0 °C -2.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.9 °C 20.5 °C 24.3 °C
Annual rainfall 1,018 mm 1,608 mm 2,433 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 173 mm 280 mm 467 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 294 research-grade observations of Orthothecium rufescens 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 13 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.

  • Holmgrenia rufescens (Dicks. ex Brid.) Lindb.
  • Holmgrenia rufescens subsp. complanata (Kindb.) Kindb.
  • Hypnum rufescens Dicks. ex Brid.
  • Isothecium rufescens (Dicks. ex Brid.) Huebener
  • Leskea rufescens (Dicks. ex Brid.) Schwägr.
  • Orthothecium complanatum Kindb.
  • Orthothecium rufescens f. virescens Mönk.
  • Orthothecium rufescens subsp. complanatum (Kindb.) Kindb.
  • Orthothecium rufescens var. complanatum (Kindb.) Limpr.
  • Orthothecium rufescens var. minus Głow.
  • Orthothecium rufescens var. virescens (Mönk.) Breidl. ex Sakurai
  • Pylaisia rufescens (Dicks. ex Brid.) De Not.
  • Stereodon rufescens (Dicks. ex Brid.) Mitt.

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.