Plate 1 figs. a–f · 4 observations
This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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.
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 33 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | -29.4 °C | -12.5 °C | -1.0 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 13.2 °C | 16.7 °C | 28.0 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 561 mm | 1,020 mm | 2,807 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 54 mm | 198 mm | 411 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 33 research-grade observations of Tortella fragilis 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 20 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.
- Barbula aggregata Stirt.
- Barbula drummondii (Mitt.) Milde
- Barbula drummondii var. setacea (Farneti) Paris
- Barbula fragilis (Drumm.) Schimp.
- Barbula fragilis var. setacea Farneti
- Campylopus hartmanii Schimp. ex C.Hartm. & R.W.Hartm.
- Dicranum hartmanii (Schimp. ex C.Hartm. & R.W.Hartm.) Lorentz
- Didymodon fragilis Drumm.
- Mollia aggregata (Stirt.) Stirt.
- Mollia fragilis (Drumm.) Lindb.
- Timmia winonensis Holz.
- Tortella fragilis f. paludosa J.J.Amann
- Tortella fragilis f. riparia (J.J.Amann) Podp.
- Tortella fragilis var. setacea (Farneti) Paris
- Tortella tortuosa subsp. fragilis (Drumm.) J.J.Amann
- Tortella tortuosa var. riparia J.J.Amann
- Tortula drummondii Mitt.
- Tortula fragilis (Drumm.) C.Hartm.
- Trichostomum fragile (Drumm.) Müll.Hal.
- Trichostomum lonchobasis Müll.Hal.
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.