Physcomitrium patens(Hedw.) Mitt.

physcomitrella moss

WFO wfo-0001151709 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Physcomitrium patens, photographed by George Greiff
fig. a George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-07-28 / obs. 87096570
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by George Greiff
fig. b George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84863374
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by George Greiff
fig. c George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84863377
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by George Greiff
fig. d George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84863485
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by George Greiff
fig. e George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84863491
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by George Greiff
fig. f George Greiff, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84863500
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. g Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23242665
Physcomitrium patens, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. h Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23242667

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 38 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -7.5 °C 0.1 °C 2.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.4 °C 23.1 °C 27.6 °C
Annual rainfall 603 mm 838 mm 2,190 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 96 mm 165 mm 255 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 38 research-grade observations of Physcomitrium patens 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 25 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.

  • Aphanorhegma patens var. marginatum (Vondr.) Kürschner
  • Aphanorrhegma patens (Hedw.) Lindb.
  • Ephemerum cohaerens var. lucasianum (Nees & Hornsch.) Hampe
  • Ephemerum patens (Hedw.) Hampe
  • Ephemerum patens var. megapolitanum (Schultz) Hampe
  • Genthia patens (Hedw.) Bayrh.
  • Genthia patens var. megapolitana (Schultz) Bayrh.
  • Phascum cohaerens var. lucasianum (Nees & Hornsch.) Bruch & Schimp.
  • Phascum lucae Spreng.
  • Phascum lucasianum Nees & Hornsch.
  • Phascum megapolitanum Schultz
  • Phascum patens Hedw.
  • Phascum patens var. megapolitanum (Schultz) Bruch & Schimp.
  • Phascum patens var. tenerum Fiedl.
  • Phascum punctatum Knaf ex Opiz
  • Physcomitrella patens (Hedw.) Bruch & Schimp.
  • Physcomitrella patens var. angustifolia De Not.
  • Physcomitrella patens var. lucasiana (Nees & Hornsch.) Schimp.
  • Physcomitrella patens var. marginata Vondr.
  • Physcomitrella patens var. megapolitana (Schultz) Bruch & Schimp.
  • Physcomitrella patens var. patens
  • Physcomitrella patens var. pedicellata Bruch & Schimp.
  • Physcomitrium patens f. curtum Loeske
  • Physcomitrium patens f. elatum Loeske

and 1 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol PHPA21. public domain. 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.