Mosses n do we know enough?

by Helen M. Scott
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 2:18 PM MDT

What is so interesting about mosses? Everything! Even if you have mastered identifying other kinds of plants, once you begin studying the mosses’ incredible microscopic details, you will be confronted with forms, shapes and concepts unlike anything you have run into before.

Also, mosses display such amazing adaptations and variations in form that it is just a blast to wrap your brain around them.

At first glance, mosses are all alike. At second glance, they make up a whole new world to explore.

Mosses and liverworts are traditionally classified together in the division “bryophyte” on the basis of their sharing a similar life cycle, similar reproductive organs and lack of vascular system.

Some 23,000 species of living mosses and liverworts have been identified. These are small, fairly simple plants usually found in moist locations, typically consisting of a stem not much thicker than a thick hair, densely covered with leaves 1/16th of an inch long.

Often moss stems branch and rebranch, with many mosses growing together to form a thick green carpet.

Neither mosses nor liverworts have any woody tissue so they never grow very large, and they neither have the means for transport of water and food through the plant.

Since mosses obtain all of their nutrients from the air (they have no true roots), moss plants require nothing more than shade, acidic soil and adequate moisture to flourish.

All that moss plants need is a firm soil bed in a location with adequate shade. Moss also seems to prefer poor quality soils with low nutrient levels.

There is a good chance that you might spot some mosses in your own backyard. If an old rock fence or some big trees grace your yard, your chances are very good.

When looking, remember that most moss species like moist, shaded places n probably on the northern side of your house where the sun never really shines on the surfaces.

Numerous mosses can be found on old wooden shingles used for roofing older buildings.

We can say that mosses came into existence before flowering plants some 350 million years ago, before dinosaurs, before all reptiles, and even before flying insects.

Mosses reproduce with spores. Despite spores being primitive items, they do have certain advantages, such as being so lightweight that the wind can carry them for immense distances.

But there is also the problem of spores being unable to carry much energy for the baby moss, and this is the reason why even if a moss produces a million spores, it will be lucky if just one spore eventually produces a mature plant.

When identifying mosses, know that all features are miniscule, so if you are looking to identify your neighborhood mosses, you nearly always need a hand lens, and very often a microscope.

Once you have identified the moss species around your own home, then it becomes a real thrill to range farther afield into new habitats where you can find species you have never seen before.

One reason mosses make good subjects to specialize in is that they easily can be collected and preserved. Just pick one up, blot it dry, and plop it into an envelope.

Collecting plants larger than mosses can turn into a logistical nightmare because they usually must be dried to keep from rotting or becoming moldy.

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