Moss Species Database with Ecological Indicator Values for Urban Greening

Melanie Eiting developed a database of 510 moss species with ecological indicator values for urban greening planning. The database supports filtering by botanical and German names, moss types, and indicator values for light, temperature, continentality, moisture, and reaction on a 1–9 scale. It was last updated on 2026-05-11 and is available under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Selecting suitable moss species for specific urban site conditions based on combined ecological indicator values.
• Identifying optimal environmental conditions for cultivating a target moss species based on its indicator profile.
• Statistically evaluating the distribution of mosses across ecological gradients for research or planning.
• Extending the database with additional species information or images for customized greening projects.

Strengths

• Contains indicator values for 510 distinct moss species.
• Enables differentiated filtering by five ecological indicator categories (light, temperature, continentality, moisture, reaction) on a 1–9 scale.
• Built upon an established ecological classification system (Ellenberg indicator values and Düll and Düll-Wunder).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is provided as a 680.0 KB DOCX file, which may require conversion for programmatic use.

Provenance

Source

Melanie Eiting

Collection Method

Transferred an existing classification of mosses by Düll and Düll-Wunder into a Microsoft Access database.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-11 22:02:37; freshness should be verified.