Phlegmariurus crassus(Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) B.Øllg.

WFO wfo-0001039357 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Bethany Teigen
fig. a Bethany Teigen, CC0 1.0 / 2020-02-09 / obs. 61694469
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Julien Renoult
fig. b Julien Renoult, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 12398936
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. c Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 73940202
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Kevin Judge
fig. d Kevin Judge, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 103219479
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Morten Ross
fig. e Morten Ross, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198469031
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Abby Darrah
fig. f Abby Darrah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 161363647
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Todd Boland
fig. g Todd Boland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109659002
Phlegmariurus crassus, photographed by Robert Webster
fig. h Robert Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 62219462

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.

Native range 10 botanical countries

Regions where Phlegmariurus crassus is native: Mexico Southwest, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Peru, Venezuela Mexico SouthwestBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorGuatemalaHondurasPanamáPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Phlegmariurus crassus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Southwest MXS NORTHERN AMERICA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 567 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -2.2 °C 0.4 °C 4.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 8.4 °C 9.9 °C 14.3 °C
Annual rainfall 1,447 mm 2,132 mm 2,851 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 116 mm 291 mm 396 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 567 research-grade observations of Phlegmariurus crassus 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.

  • Huperzia crassa (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Rothm.
  • Huperzia crassa var. crassa
  • Huperzia crassa var. gelida B.Øllg.
  • Huperzia crassa var. manus-diaboli B.Øllg.
  • Huperzia erythraea (Spring) Trevis.
  • Huperzia pilgeriana (Nessel) Holub
  • Huperzia springii (Nessel) Holub
  • Lycopodium bonae-voluntatis (Herter) C.V.Morton
  • Lycopodium crassum Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
  • Lycopodium crassum var. springii Hieron. ex Nessel
  • Lycopodium erythraeum Spring
  • Lycopodium nesselianum Duek & Lellinger
  • Lycopodium saururus var. crassum (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Sodiro
  • Urostachys bonae-voluntatis Herter
  • Urostachys bonae-voluntatis var. minor Herter
  • Urostachys crassus (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Herter ex Nessel
  • Urostachys crassus var. herteri Nessel
  • Urostachys erythraeus (Spring) Herter ex Nessel
  • Urostachys kupperi Nessel
  • Urostachys orionis Herter
  • Urostachys pilgerianus Nessel
  • Urostachys springii Nessel

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. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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.