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Hylocomium splendens
Also called Glittering Wood Moss, Mountain Fern Moss, Stair Step Moss, Stairstep Moss
Splendid feather moss is a perennial clonal moss that forms mats on boreal forest floors across the Northern Hemisphere; the stepped, feathery fronds grow one new level per year. It is shade-loving and grows best on soil, humus and decaying wood in cool, moist woodland.
Hylocomium splendens, commonly known as glittering woodmoss, splendid feather moss, stairstep moss, and mountain fern moss, is a perennial clonal moss with a widespread distribution in Northern Hemisphere boreal forests. It is commonly found in Europe, Russia, Alaska and Canada, where it is often the most abundant moss species. It also grows in the Arctic tundra and further south at higher elevations in, for example, northern California, western Sichuan, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies. In Scotland it is a characteristic species of the Caledonian Forest. Under the UK's national vegetation classification system, pinewood community W18 is named as "Pinus sylvestris-Hylocomium splendens woodland", indicating its significance in this ecosystem.
Occurring widely in the boreal forests, this plant is often found on forest floors even in relatively harsh northern latitudes. In Canada, for example, according to C. Michael Hogan the black spruce/feathermoss climax forest often occurs with moderately dense canopy featuring a forest floor of feathermosses that include H. splendens, Pleurozium schreberi and Ptilium crista-castrensis. Experiments simulating global change with increased nutrient deposits and warming indicate that increased nutrient deposits and climate warming may have negative impact on growth of Hylocomium splendens.
The species has a commercial use in floral exhibitions and for lining fruit and vegetable storage boxes. In the past it was utilised as a floor covering for dirt floors. In Alaska and northern Canada it is still used for filling the gaps between the logs in log cabins. It has anti-bacterial qualities and may also contain anti-tumour agents.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hylocomium splendens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
