Glittering Wood-moss

Glittering wood-moss (Hylocomium splendens), also called splendid feather moss or stairstep moss, is a perennial clonal moss of the family Hylocomiaceae, olive green to yellowish or reddish-green with reddish stems and branches up to 20 centimeters long. It grows in tiered, feathery fronds, with each year's new growth starting from the middle of the previous year's branch, so the tiers can be counted to estimate the plant's age. It is shade-tolerant and grows on soil, humus, and decaying wood, often forming layered mats, and is common throughout the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe, Russia, Alaska, and Canada, where it is often the dominant moss; it also grows in Arctic tundra and at higher elevations in places including northern California, western Sichuan, East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the West Indies, and is a characteristic species of Scotland's Caledonian Forest.