Plagiomnium ellipticum (elliptic plagiomnium moss)

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Plagiomnium ellipticum, photographed by Martin Purdy — fig. a Martin Purdy, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-22 / obs. 152090667

Plagiomnium ellipticum, photographed by Tatiana Strus — fig. d Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 73075061

Plagiomnium ellipticum, photographed by Andrew Melton — fig. e Andrew Melton, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45005805

Plagiomnium ellipticum, photographed by Nina Filippova — fig. g Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124098251

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 92 observations

Condition	5th percentile	Median	95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low	-25.5 °C	-14.2 °C	-1.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high	15.6 °C	22.8 °C	28.0 °C
Annual rainfall	379 mm	619 mm	1,366 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter	34 mm	89 mm	257 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 92 research-grade observations of Plagiomnium ellipticum 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 27 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.

Astrophyllum cuspidatum var. integrifolium (Lindb.) C.E.O.Jensen
Astrophyllum rugicum (Laurer) Kindb.
Bryum ellipticum (Brid.) Brid.
Mnium affine f. paludosum (Warnst.) Mönk.
Mnium affine f. rugicum (Laurer) Margad.
Mnium affine subsp. rutheanum (Warnst.) J.J.Amann
Mnium affine var. integrifolium (Lindb.) Milde
Mnium affine var. magellanicum Cardot & Broth.
Mnium affine var. rugicum (Laurer) Bruch & Schimp.
Mnium affine var. rutheanum (Warnst.) Mönk.
Mnium arcticum Kindb.
Mnium cuspidatum subsp. rugicum (Laurer) Hampe
Mnium cuspidatum var. integrifolium Lindb.
Mnium cuspidatum var. rugicum (Laurer) Braithw.
Mnium ellipticum Brid.
Mnium latilimbatum X.J.Li & M.Zang
Mnium leptolimbatum Müll.Hal.
Mnium paludosum Warnst.
Mnium perpusillum Warnst.
Mnium rugicum Laurer
Mnium rutheanum Warnst.
Mnium seligeri var. intermedium Warnst.
Mnium seligeri var. sessile Velen.
Orthomnion ellipticum (Brid.) T.J.Kop. & Yu Sun

and 3 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
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.