Scorpidium scorpioides(Hedw.) Limpr.

hooked scorpion-mosssausage mossscorpidium moss

WFO wfo-0001175458 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 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.

Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by Petr Knotek
fig. a Petr Knotek, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-04 / obs. 194994119
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by Petr Knotek
fig. b Petr Knotek, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194994137
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by Ditte Grube Barild
fig. c Ditte Grube Barild, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54142188
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by Jonathan Hughes
fig. d Jonathan Hughes, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148565644
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by naturalist charlie
fig. e naturalist charlie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 89580338
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. f Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 138485489
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by Ditte Grube Barild
fig. g Ditte Grube Barild, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54142161
Scorpidium scorpioides, photographed by naturalist charlie
fig. h naturalist charlie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 89580259

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 158 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -20.4 °C -8.9 °C 2.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.4 °C 20.8 °C 26.4 °C
Annual rainfall 453 mm 901 mm 2,320 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 53 mm 137 mm 355 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 158 research-grade observations of Scorpidium scorpioides 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 50 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.

  • Amblystegium scorpioides (Hedw.) Lindb.
  • Amblystegium sendtneri var. hamatum (Schimp.) Braithw.
  • Amblystegium wilsonii var. hamatum (Schimp.) Lindb.
  • Calliergon scorpioides (Hedw.) Kindb.
  • Calliergon subturgescens Kindb.
  • Drepanocladus aduncus var. hamatum (Schimp.) Grout
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides (Hedw.) Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides f. rugulosus Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides f. subsimplex Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides f. suffocatus P.de la Varde
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides var. fluitans Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides var. gracilescens (Sanio) Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides var. julaceus (Sanio) Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus scorpioides var. pratensis (Schiffn.) Ambrož
  • Drepanocladus sendtneri subf. hamatus (Schimp.) Mönk.
  • Drepanocladus sendtneri var. hamatus (Schimp.) Warnst.
  • Drepanocladus wilsonii var. hamatus (Schimp.) G.Roth
  • Fontinalis turfacea Herzog
  • Hypnum aduncum var. hamatum Schimp.
  • Hypnum crassum Schumach.
  • Hypnum lycopodioides var. hamatum (Schimp.) Renauld
  • Hypnum scorpioides Hedw.
  • Hypnum scorpioides unranked julaceum Sanio
  • Hypnum scorpioides var. angustifolium Sanio

and 26 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.