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Woollywort

Trichocolea mollissima

Woollywort
Photo: MarshallSimon, CC BY-SA 3.0

Woollywort (Trichocolea mollissima) is a large liverwort, a non-flowering plant related to mosses, that forms woolly mats on the ground and lower tree trunks in damp forest. It is grown only rarely, and the key to keeping it is constant humidity and deep shade.

Family
Trichocoleaceae (Trichocole family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Shade
Water
Keep consistently moist and never let it dry out, using rainwater or soft water.
Soil
Moist, decaying wood, bark or leaf litter; a peat or humus-rich mix kept damp.
Temperature
10–20 °C; protect from frost and heat above 25 °C.
How easy
Hard

About

Trichocolea mollissima (woolly worm) is a large liverwort of the Trichocoleaceae family. It is found commonly throughout wet sclerophyll and rainforests in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia it is present in Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. It also occurs extensively on the north island of New Zealand. Its most distinctive feature is its highly divided, densely arranged and extremely small leaves, which lend it a woolly appearance; hence its common name “woolly worm”. It usually grows in a matted or tufted habit on the ground and lower trunks of trees, and exhibits a preference for decaying wood and deep shade. On casual observance, its leaf arrangement and growth habit resemble that of a large moss. Its stems are commonly 3–6 cm long, with leaves up to 0.6mm wide, with up to 3-3 divisions. leaves and stems are arranged in bi-pinnate (rarely tri-pinnate) form.

Other Trichocolea plants

Handsome Woollywort · Trichocolea

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Trichocolea mollissima 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.

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