The plant is often associated with various mosses, such as feather moss, Hylocomium splendens.

Glittering Wood-moss (Hylocomium splendens)

Feather mosses such as Stair-Step Moss (Hylocomium splendens) and Hypnum are amongst the undergrowth.

Traditionally, dried mosses, such as Pleurozium schreberi or Hylocomium splendens, were used in the Nordic countries as an insulator between logs.

The understory is dominated by feather mosses (Hylocomium splendens and Pleurozium schreberi, Ptilium crista-castrensis, and Dicranum spp.)

Hylocomium splendens, commonly known as Glittering Wood-moss, Stair-step Moss and Mountain Fern Moss, is a perennial clonal moss with a widespread distribution in Northern Hemisphere boreal forests.

Some of the family species occur on the floor of Canadian boreal forests; an example of this occurrence is within the Black Spruce/Feathermoss climax forest, often having moderately dense canopy and featuring a forest floor of feathermosses including, Hylocomium splendens, Pleurozium schreberi and Ptilium crista-castrensis.