poleetrichum or polytrichum?

heard as poleetrichum

spelled polytrichum

Polytrichum, with y.

What the ear did

Careful speech lengthens the second syllable towards ee, and ee is how English writes that. Greek gives it y.

Sound decision: two sound decisions at once. Said pol-ee-TRIK-um.

P-O-L-Y-T-R-I-C-H-U-M

The full entry for polytrichum covers the name itself.