Philonotis capillarisLindb.

philonotis moss

WFO wfo-0001150830 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Philonotis capillaris, photographed by Randal
fig. a Randal, CC0 1.0 / 2022-04-09 / obs. 187200164

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 46 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -3.0 °C 0.8 °C 4.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.7 °C 23.3 °C 28.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,009 mm 1,580 mm 2,610 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 94 mm 124 mm 357 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 46 research-grade observations of Philonotis capillaris 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 22 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.

  • Bartramia capillaris (Lindb.) T.Jensen
  • Bartramia fontana var. capillaris (Lindb.) Boulay
  • Philonotis arnellii Husn.
  • Philonotis boulayi Corb.
  • Philonotis capillaris f. gemmiclada Loeske
  • Philonotis capillaris var. gallica H.Philib.
  • Philonotis capillaris var. gemmiclada (Loeske) Dism.
  • Philonotis capillaris var. norwegica H.Philib.
  • Philonotis capillaris var. thedenii H.Philib.
  • Philonotis confervoides Zodda ex G.Roth
  • Philonotis fontana subsp. capillaris (Lindb.) Hérib.
  • Philonotis fontana var. capillaris (Lindb.) Lindb.
  • Philonotis fontana var. parvula (Lindb. ex H.Philib.) Lindb. ex H.A.Möller
  • Philonotis fontana var. tenuis Boulay
  • Philonotis macounii Lesq. & James
  • Philonotis marchica var. capillaris (Lindb.) Limpr.
  • Philonotis marchica var. romanica Péterfi
  • Philonotis parvula Lindb. ex H.Philib.
  • Philonotis parvula var. bomanssonii H.Philib.
  • Philonotis ryanii H.Philib.
  • Philonotis tenuis (Boulay) Corb.
  • Philonotis vancouveriensis Kindb.

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.