Thuidium delicatulum (Hedw.) Schimp.
Delicate fern moss, fern moss, common fern moss, delicate thuidium moss
The delicate fern moss is perfectly named, reproducing the bipinnate or tripinnate structure of many ferns on a Lilliputian scale. These mosses are native to eastern North America, Alaska, Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia, Asia, Mexico, and South America. Many birds favor this moss for their nests.
Identification: “Fern fronds” are 1–3″ (3–8 cm) in length, and adorn living and dead branches, as well as moist, shaded soil, humus, rocks, logs, or stumps. It forms large colonial mats. Fern moss may appear as deep green, yellow green, or orange-brown. The orange-brown coloration is not (necessarily) an indicator of poor health.
Habitats: Ground soil and humus in deciduous woodlands, wooded bluffs and hillsides, northern edges of pine groves, tree bases near streams in woods, shaded banks of ravines, shaded creek banks, swampy woods, hummocks in tamarack swamps and typical swamps, shaded areas of sandstone cliffs, the base of sandstone walls, wet sandstone boulders in canyons, and underneath trees in hill prairies along rivers.
Online References:
Thuidium delicatulum (Hedw.) Schimp. var. repens Kindb.
1/7/2012 · Beaver Brook Association Trails, Hollis, New Hampshire 
ID is uncertain 
10/10/2021 · 88 Wilderness Lane, Norway, Maine · ≈ 5 × 3″ (12 × 8.4 cm) 
10/10/2021 · 88 Wilderness Lane, Norway, Maine · ≈ 4½ × 3″ (11 × 7.9 cm) 
8/28/2020 · Jack’s and Litchfield Trails, Chase Reserve, Brunswick, Maine · ≈ 6 × 4″ (16 × 11 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/29/2015 · Mount Grace, Athol, Massachusetts · ≈ 6 × 6″ (14 × 15 cm) 
8/16/2015 · Table Rock Hike, Appalacian Trail, Grafton Notch State Park · ≈ 8 × 6″ (20 × 14 cm) 
8/16/2015 · Table Rock Hike, Appalacian Trail, Grafton Notch State Park · ≈ 6 × 5″ (15 × 13 cm) 
The dark green moss is Dicranum scoparium. · 10/10/2021 · 88 Wilderness Lane, Norway, Maine · ≈ 4 × 2½″ (10 × 7 cm) 
8/14/2013 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 9 × 6″ (23 × 16 cm) 
12/10/2011 · Groton Place and Sabine Woods, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 8 × 5″ (19 × 13 cm) 
8/5/2023 · Oven’s Mouth Preserve, West Preserve, Boothbay, Maine 
9/4/2020 · Wilson’s Cove Trail, Harpswell Heritage Land Trust, Harpswell, Maine · ≈ 3½ × 4″ (9.2 × 10 cm) ID is uncertain 
3/13/2016 · Gap Mountain, Troy, New Hampshire · ≈ 8 × 5″ (19 × 12 cm) 
8/14/2013 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 9 × 6″ (22 × 15 cm) 
8/14/2013 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 9 × 6″ (23 × 16 cm) 
12/22/2011 · Groton Place and Sabine Woods, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 9 × 6″ (22 × 14 cm) 
12/10/2011 · Groton Place and Sabine Woods, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 4½ × 7″ (11 × 17 cm) 
8/15/2015 · Grafton Notch State Park, Newry, Maine · ≈ 11 × 7″ (28 × 18 cm) 
8/16/2015 · Table Rock Hike, Appalacian Trail, Grafton Notch State Park · ≈ 4½ × 6″ (11 × 16 cm) 
(The oval leaves and red berry is partridgeberry [Mitchella repens.]) · 12/10/2011 · Groton Place and Sabine Woods, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 9 × 6″ (23 × 15 cm) 
8/16/2015 · Table Rock Hike, Appalacian Trail, Grafton Notch State Park · ≈ 6 × 6″ (16 × 14 cm) 
8/5/2023 · Oven’s Mouth Preserve, West Preserve, Boothbay, Maine 
| Kingdom | Plantae | Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin) |
| Division | Bryophyta | Mosses |
| Subdivision | Musci | Mosses (all 12,000 of them) |
| Class | Bryopsida | Mosses with arthrodontous spore capsules, which is most of them |
| Subclass | Bryidae | Mosses with a double peristome with alternating tooth segments |
| Order | Hypnales | An order of Bryophyta or leafy mosses |
| Family | Thuidiaceae | A family of mosses, usually occuring in stiff, loose mats, dark green to golden brown |
| Genus | Thuidium | From Thuja and Latin -idium, “diminutive,” alluding to a branched habit |
| Species | delicatulum | Delicate |
Thuidium delicatulum description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.
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