Ectropothecium zollingeri

Ectropothecium zollingeri is a moss that is widespread in tropical and subtropical Asia and on some South Sea islands. It colonises tree trunks and roots, rotting wood or stones and soil in forests.¹ This moss is also called Glossadelphus zollingeri, but that name is today mostly regarded as a synonym of E. zollingeri.

This species is only treated here because the name G. zollingeri is not unknown in the aquarium hobby. In 1969, Gerhard Benl presented a new aquarium moss as “Bogor moss”, Glossadelphus zollingeri.² According to Kasselmann (2007)³, however, this “Bogor moss” was Taxiphyllum barbieri, which aquarists today mostly call “Java moss”.

Some things also indicate that a Vesicularia (possibly V. dubyana) is taken by aquarists for Glossadelphus zollingeri (that is, Ectropothecium zollingeri).

True Ectropothecium zollingeri, on the other hand, has certainly not yet been introduced as an aquarium moss. We also have no information on whether it is suitable for aquariums.

E. zollingeri is an irregularly pinnately branched moss that externally resembles, e.g., Taxiphyllum and Hypnum species. It is also counted in the same family (Hypnaceae, plait-mosses). It has ovate-lanceolate, asymmetrical leaves tapering to a point. The leaf cells are narrow in shape. At the leaf base there is a short, forked costa. The leaves have 2 to 8 enlarged alar cells.¹

The genus Ectropothecium is distinguished from related genera by some microscopic characters. It contains approximately 200 species worldwide and is distributed mainly in the tropics and subtropics.⁴ The somewhat tongue-twisting name comes from Greek: ektrope = “turned to the side” and thekion = “small container” and refers to the bent-down spore capsules on the upright capsule stalks.⁵

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