E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Species description:
Genus name meaning woodland inhabitant. Species name reflecting the intricate beauty of the plants.

Reproduction:
Sporophytes infrequent, but sometimes locally abun­dant, maturing in spring to summer.

Comments:
This species is often called the "stair-step moss" because of the distinctive branching pattern. Another common name is "mountain fern moss", a name evoked by its distinctive branching.

Distinguishing characteristics:
The elegantly feathery branched plants, with arching main shoots bearing feathery side branches, all arranged in a horizontal plane, coupled with the red-brown stems furry with paraphyllia, and the elongate sinuous tip of the stem leaves, are usually distinctive.

Habit:
Dull, glossy green to brownish-green plants with red-brown stems, forming loose carpets of interwoven much-branched arching shoots. Annual growth usually marked by an abrupt angle from the preceding year's feather-like, flattened branch system on the main shoot.

Similar Species:
Species of the genus Thuidium have a similar branch­ing pattern but the plants are not glossy, tend to be yellow-green rather than brownish-green, and the stems are not conspicuously red. Kindbergia praelonga is often elaborately branched but lacks the regular arching shoots and the single flattened plane of the annual branch sys­tem is not apparent; stem leaves have one (rather than two) midrib and lack the sinuous apex. Kindbergia is most frequent in swampy sites in forests, while the Hylocomium is in well-drained sites. H. umbratum lacks the regularly arched main branch system and the whole plant tends to be golden brownish-green.