Large for a moss, up to 2 inches tall, usually unbranched, with leaves up to half an inch long. Leaves are bright, green, translucent, in a dense rosette that resembles a little flower. Grows in crowded patches on rotting logs, rocks, and tree bases.. Spores born in little capsules on long hair-like stalks, but rarely seen in ours.

A characteristic moss of eastern deciduous forests; also in Europe and Asia. In Wildwood, fairly common in the Northeast corner, below the entrance by the water tower.

The striking flower-like leaf arrangement makes this one moss that is easy to identify. Bryologists have recently split Rhodobryum roseum into two species, this one and Arctic rose moss, which kept the Latin name. Arctic rose moss is found only in Alaska and the Aleutians.