Philonotis fontana(Hedw.) Brid.

philonotis moss

WFO wfo-0001150872 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Philonotis fontana, photographed by Randal
fig. a Randal, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-07 / obs. 204289041
Philonotis fontana, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. b Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201300259
Philonotis fontana, photographed by Randal
fig. c Randal, CC0 1.0 / obs. 200643183
Philonotis fontana, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. d Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 190933403
Philonotis fontana, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. e Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 189330130
Philonotis fontana, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. f Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160510610
Philonotis fontana, photographed by J Straka
fig. g J Straka, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172004315
Philonotis fontana, photographed by J Straka
fig. h J Straka, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171196197

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 776 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.2 °C -4.3 °C 2.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.0 °C 18.5 °C 27.0 °C
Annual rainfall 692 mm 1,447 mm 3,463 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 83 mm 245 mm 408 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 776 research-grade observations of Philonotis fontana 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 89 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 adpressa (Fergusson) Hobk.
  • Bartramia fontana (Hedw.) Turner
  • Bartramia fontana var. helvetica Sw.
  • Bartramia fontana var. inundata Lamy
  • Bartramia fontana var. magellanica (Brid.) P.Beauv.
  • Bartramia fontana var. major Hook. & Taylor
  • Bartramia fontana var. minor Schwägr.
  • Bartramia fontana var. minor Bals.-Criv. & De Not.
  • Bartramia fontana var. secunda Hartm.
  • Bartramia fontana var. variegata Brid.
  • Bartramia glabriuscula (Kindb.) Müll.Hal.
  • Bartramia heleniana Mitt.
  • Bartramia parvula Norrl.
  • Bryum fontanum (Hedw.) Huds. ex Crome
  • Bryum zonatum Schimp.
  • Mnium fontanum Hedw.
  • Mnium fontanum var. magellanicum Brid.
  • Philonotis acutiflora Kindb.
  • Philonotis adpressa Fergusson
  • Philonotis americana f. occidentalis (Flowers) Grout
  • Philonotis americana var. gracilescens (Dism.) Flowers
  • Philonotis caespitosa subsp. fallax Dism.
  • Philonotis caespitosa var. heterophylla Dism.
  • Philonotis caespitosa var. syriaca Lorentz

and 65 more.

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.