stairstep moss
Hylocomium splendens
You can determine the age of a single moss shoot by counting its leafy, step-like branches, as it grows exactly one new 'stair' each year.
- Scientific name
- Hylocomium splendens
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Bryophyta › Bryopsida › Hypnales › Hylocomiaceae › Hylocomium
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Damp boreal and temperate forest floors, decaying logs, and shaded hummocks.
- Diet
- Photosynthetic (utilizes sunlight, moisture, and airborne mineral nutrients).
- Range
- North America, Europe, Asia, Arctic tundra margins
- Size
- Mats up to 20 cm tall, composed of annual step-like segments 2 to 5 cm long.
- Lifespan
- Individual shoots live 5 to 10 years, while clonal mats can persist for centuries.
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Deforestation, heavy logging machinery, severe wildfires, and localized air pollution.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. You can gently touch its soft, feathery mats. Avoid treading heavily on large carpets of this moss to prevent soil erosion and damage to the micro-habitats beneath.
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...
Photo: Scott Morris, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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