Instagram

 As I find this platform cumbersome to work with, I invite you to follow my Instagram account at ne_mosses  I will be posting photos of mosses nearby (for me, western Mass) as well as excerpts from my upcoming book Ecological Guide to Mosses of New England. Hope to see you there! Sue

Looking for Gold....Goblins Gold

 When you find yourself looking deep under a ledge where the light is dim, or way in a deep dark recess under a root, or even in the dim light of an old stone foundation under a barn, that’s the time to be looking for gold.....Goblin’s Gold. 

 Reaching in, you grab a handful of the shiny stuff, but when you open your hand there’s nothing there! You might just have found Schistostega pennata. A tiny delicate moss that can grow in the darkest of holes on soil. The shiny stuff you see is the persistent luminous protonema from which it arises. Sometimes you might find yourself holding a fragile, tiny, pale-green, fern-like moss which is the sterile form and most often seen. It shrivels quite quickly when removed from the dark, moist soil where you found it. If you are lucky enough to find capsules, you’ll see that they are ovoid, erect and have no peristome, or teeth, around the mouth.

Bryophyte course at Eagle Hill

This June I will be coteaching a beginners bryophyte course with Jerry Jenkins at Eagle Hill in Maine.

For Information on this course:  http://www.eaglehill.us/programs/nhs/seminar-flyer-pdfs/2015Mosses_JenkinsWilliams.pdf

For general program information, go to http://www.eaglehill.us/seminars

For more information, contact Marilyn Mayer:  marilyn@eaglehill.us    or  207-546-2821

Hope to see you there!

Moss Word of the Day: JULACEOUS

JOO-LAY-SHUS

What a great word!
But what does it mean in reference to mosses?

It means that the branch is smoothly cylindric, the leaves so closely overlapping that it resembles a caterpillar or catkin.

Some common mosses that have julaceous branches are....

Myurella sibirica

This moss is not as julaceous as it's relative Myurella julacea.
Both are very tiny little mosses that like to grow in rock crevices on thin soil or mixed with other mosses on basic or calcareous rock.

Medium sized mosses would include Thelia asprella & T. hirtella, both species like to grow on tree bases in oak-hickory woods, and also Entodon seductrix which is found on limy rocks, soil and tree bases.

Thelia hirtella

close up of Thelia asprella 
(photo by Jerry Jenkins)

Entodon seductrix
(photo by Jerry Jenkins)

One of our largest julaceous mosses is Bryoandersonia illecebra which is very worm-like when new shoots first appear in the spring. It grows on the ground.

Bryoandersonia illecebra in spring
(photo by Jerry Jenkins)

a march day interlude

it's a beautiful sunny day today so i went for a little hike and during that hike i  was looking at the mosses on tree trunks as there's still so much snow on the ground.
i was thinking about ulota crispa and orthotrichum and how, when i first started mosses, i didn't know the difference between the two.
so i got out my camera and tried to get some shots from far away to close up of the two.
both were growing on the same big maple tree in my yard.

on a dry day, they are very easy to tell apart!
ulota crispa (like its name) has very 'crisped' and curly leaves when it's dry.
orthotrichum, on the other hand, has leaves that are straight and hug the stem.

so, on your next hike in the woods or on trees in your yard, see if you can find both species!

The Mnium Group

Mniums used to be all lumped together in one genus - Mnium...
then in 1968 T.J. Koponen separated them into different groups:

1) Leaf margin entire (or obscurely toothed): Pseudobryum, Cyrtomnium & Rhizomnium

2) Leaf margins with single teeth: Plagiomnium

3) Leaf margins with double teeth: Mnium

Let's take a look at the first group:

Rhizomniums are fairly common in our area, especially R. punctatum and R. appalachianum
Both species have leaves that have a strong border of long cells with interior cells that are roundish.
R. punctatum is much smaller than R. appalachianum and i find it most often on rocks in wet areas whereas R. appalachianum grows in wet, swampy soil.

Rhizomnium punctatum

R. punctatum - note the smooth stems

Rhizomnium punctatum also has no tomentum or brownish hairs growing up the stem; only at the base.

a nice clump of Rhizomnium appalachianum

a scan of R. appalachianum. notice how the stem is covered with brown 'stuff' covering the stem.

Pseudobryum cinclidiodes is very much like Rhizomnium appalachianum. It is similar size-wise (a BIG moss) as well as liking the same type of wet places in the woods. It's leaves are a little more oblong, and if you look really closely it actually has really short, blunt teeth. Also, the leaf border is much weaker. If you look at it under the microscope, its cells are much more elongated and are in rows that angle away from the costa. The first time i saw this, i just couldn't figure it out...it was a mnium with bryum cells!

Pseudobryum cinclidiodes, compare the leaf shape to R. appalachianum

The last moss of this group is Cyrtomnium hymenophylloides...a rare moss of northern areas growing on limy ledges.  it's quite small, a beautiful blue green with round leaves basically in two rows.

Cyrtomnium hymenophylloides

More on Bryums & Mniums

Bryums & Mniums are very similar to each other at first glance...one usually notes that they both have capsules that are 'droopy' and they both have leaves that are bordered with long cells with shorter cells in the middle. Both are acrocarps with the capsules coming out of the tip of the plant and not on a side branch.

Let's start with the differences: although both groups have drooping capsules, Bryums have capsules with distinct 'necks':

Bryum caespiticium capsule
the neck is the top smaller 'bulge' before the stem.

Plagiomnium cuspidatum capsule (with calyptra)
note that although the capsule is drooping, there is no 'neck' to it

Bryum leaves tend to be more lanceolate, with no or few teeth and often end in a sharp needle tip:

Bryum caespiticium leaf

Mnium leaves tend to be large-ish, rounded, oblong, elliptical or obovate and often have obvious teeth (excepting the Rhizomnium group, which we'll talk about later).

Mnium spinulosum leaf

Plagiomnium ciliare leaf

Although both groups have leaves that are bordered with long cells, the border is usually quite strong in the Mniums and weaker in Bryums. The interior cells are also different, with Mnium cells being generally round or hexagonal and Bryums having long rectangular or diamond-shaped (rhomboidal) cells.

This drawing is a section from the edge of Plagiomnium ciliare,
note the rounded interior cells bordered by several rows of long cells
and the long, multicellular teeth

Interior  rhomboidal cells from Rhodobryum ontariense

So, now you know how to tell a Bryum from a Mnium...

next post we'll talk about the main groups of Mnium: Rhizomnium, Plagiomnium & Mnium

Mniums, Bryums & other wide-leaved ground mosses

There are a group of mosses that grow on the ground in especially shady places...they have wide leaves which have short to long teeth.
below is a field key to some of our common wide-leaved mosses:

and if you have a dissecting and/or compound microscope, here are some of the microscopic features:

over the next few posts, i'll go into a little more detail some of the species...such as the differences between Mniums & Bryums..and how the Mnium family is split into three distinct groups: Rhizomnium, Plagiomnium and Mnium.

Asexual Reproduction/Vegetative Propagation

 Mosses & Liverworts can reproduce by other means than spores. The asexual strategy is much faster and less costly than sexual reproduction and can enable bryos to colonize an area quickly which becomes very important in unstable environments.

There are three basic methods bryos use in vegetative propagation: Fragmentation, Gemmae & Propagules.

Fragmentation is exactly what it sounds like...parts of the plant, usually pieces of or whole leaves, break off and form new plants. Some species have taken this further and developed 'break zones' in their leaves which makes them extremely fragile and with the lightest touch, will break off. These fragments, on finding a suitable substrate, will then develop into protonema (that thread-like stage that looks like aglae) which then develops into the leafy shoots. Two examples are Dicranum viride and Haplohymenium triste:

Dicranum viride (note all the broken leaf tips)

One shoot of D. viride showing leaf tips

Dicranum viride leaf

Haplohymenium triste leaf showing 'break zone'

The production of Gemmae and Propagules take this a step further. Now the plant is putting slightly more energy into the production of structures specifically designed to grow either into protonema or directly into a leafy shoot. 

     

     Gemmae are structures, one to many celled, that are basically undifferentiated...they have no growing tip and will form protonema before growing into a plant. Many bryophytes have gemmae...the liverworts are especially fond of them. they can be one-celled round structures, 2-celled ovals, multicellular worm-like things, or stellate and they're often colored orange or red (especially in the Lophozias).

Blaisia pusilla, which grows in a very unstable habitat of open, moist soil..along ditches, etc, has two different gemmae. It produces scale-like gemmae on the ends of the thallus lobes shown below:

Blasia pusilla showing scale-like gemmae on thallus lobes

It also produces these crazy flask-like structures which house ovoid, several celled gemmae which are extruded through the mouth of the flask.

Blaisia pusilla flasks

Tortula papillosa, has multicellular globose gemmae which are found right on the leaf surface:

This beautiful photo by Michael Luth, shows the gemmae on Tortula papillosa's leaves

A view of the leaf showing the globular gemmae clustered along the costa

Propagules are even further developed than gemmae, have a growing tip, and often can resemble small buds or miniature leafy shoots. these propagules can grow directly into a plant without going through the protonema stage.

Dicranum flagellare showing upright propagules which are very easily dislodged

Dicranum flagellare propagule -
note how it looks like a tiny plant with reduced leaves.

Many times the existence of gemmae or brood bodies is very helpful in determining a species. For example, Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans and P. distichaceum look very similar in the field...but if you looked at their propagules, they are easily identified:

Pseudotaxiphyllum distichaceum propagule

Pseudotaxiphyllum elegans propagule

So, whether by fragmentation, gemmae or propagules, mosses & liverworts have found an ideal way to reproduce successfully without going through the costly and iffy process of sexual reproduction.

Bazzania trilobata - a BIG leafy, liverwort

where Conocephalum is one of our largest thalloid liverworts, Bazzania is one of our largest leafy liverworts. this means that it has a stem and leaves and is much more 'moss-like' than the thalloid liverworts which are just thick or thin flattened plants without any differentiation into stems or leaves.  Bazzania is very common in moist forests especially cedar swamps. it loves old stumps, humic soil, but can also be found on rocks and tree bases. when it's happy, it can form large, loose repeatedly forked cushions.

the way the leaves curl down somewhat over the stem have always reminded me of a centipede-like creature. Each leaf ends in 3 triangular teeth.

Bazzania, like many liverworts has small underleaves...much smaller than the top leaves, and they generally have 4-5 teeth.

 It also produces long rootlike branches which arise from the base of the underleaves, which you can see in this wonderful photo by Michael Luth:

Some say that it has the smell of sandalwood, but i haven't noticed that myself...perhaps i'll check next time i'm hiking around the park trails.

A BIG Liverwort

i haven't talked too much about liverworts, but they're no less deserving than mosses...Many of them are tiny and difficult to identify like the cephalozias..or somewhat bigger and harder to identify (i'm thinking Lophozias here). But there are a few that are very recognizable in the field....and Conocephalum conicum is one of our largest thalloid liverworts. It loves wet soil along streams, under ledges and over rocks next to waterfalls. It grows in overlapping, flat mats. It rather looks like green snake skin.

A close up of the thallus shows that it has little polygonal markings on the surface (which give it it's distinctive snakeskin-like appearance...and that in the center of each polygon is a dot. These dots are pores which lead into air chambers. Conocephalum is part of a group of liverworts that have a multi-layered, or complex,  thallus - small epidermal (surface) cells and larger interior cells. It is quite aromatic and emits a spicy-fragrant scent when the fresh plant is crushed.
   This liverwort is dioecious, which is a fancy word meaning that it has separate male and female plants. the plant above is male...you can tell by the small, brown circular patches at the end of the branches.
The next time you're in a wet area, look for this conspicuous liverwort.

Leucobryum glaucum - the pincushion moss

   The other little moss that was peeking out of the birch bark, which i didn't notice right away, was a little piece of Leucobryum glaucum. this distinctive moss was one of the first mosses i learned as it's easily identifiable.
One of the few mosses with a common name...it goes by 'Pincushion Moss' or even better...'Mother-in-Law's cushion'.  It can grow into quite large rounded cushions, large enough to sit on...and it looks ever so cushy and comfy...so, if you don't actually like your mother-in-law, you invite her to rest her feet and have a seat....what you don't tell her, is that this moss, like many of the sphagnums is really good at soaking up water like a sponge, so when you sit down on it, you will end up with a wet bottom.
  the thing that makes Leucobryum so distinctive, is also the reason why it soaks up water...it's leaf contains a great number of empty cells...The leaf has a midrib that is so broad that it doesn't look like a midrib at all anymore...it just looks like the leaf is thick and fleshy. When the plant dries out, it's color changes from green to a pale whitish green or light blue-green that is very distinctive.

a small clump of moist Leucobryum

Notice the color when it's dry

The cushions of Leucobryum are actually many separate plants all crowded together. the plants in the center of the clump continue to elongate which can make it form a nice hemispherical cushion.

this is a scan of a piece of Leucobryum taken from a large cushion

a Leucobryum leaf - the whole center is made up of a thick midrib

Leucobryum loves moist or even swampy woods and grows on humusy soil, often where stumps have completely rotted to the ground. Even though it prefers these moist areas, it can also be found in much drier areas as well. But almost always in acid areas.

Here is a nice patch of Leucobryum growing up next to McLeod pond in Colrain, MA.
Now, doesn't it look comfy to sit on??

Next time you're out in the woods, keep your eyes open for this lovely, common moss.

Hypnum imponens - the Brocade Moss

As i was hiking around the park trails the other day, i picked up this piece of birch bark...

i loved the little moss poking through the crack in the bark...as i looked closer at it, i noticed that there were actually two species, Hypnum imponens and Leucobryum glaucum, both of which are very common on the ground. It got me to thinking about how they came to be in that little piece of bark, and i came to the conclusion that the bark was growing close to the ground and as the tree was dying (or dead) the mosses grew up from the ground and through the bark.
   i've been noticing Hypnum imponens a lot over the past month...it seems to glow at the trail edges, maybe that's because there's so little green in the woods these days and one is less distracted. Commonly called 'Brocade moss' i think due to its usually neat, embroidered look. it can form extensive mats on old logs and humusy ground and likes it a little damp. This is what it commonly looks like:

it often has a very characteristic orange-brown color and a very neat arrangement of branches along the stem called pinnate (like a feather).

Like many in the Hypnum genus, it has very curly leaves which you would see if you turned the branch over...it looks smooth on top and somewhat bristly underneath (which are all the leaf tips curling under)

under side of branch tip

curved leaves - often called 'falcate-secund'

you can also see that it has no midrib or 'costa' to the leaf and something interesting is happening at the leaf base where it attaches to the stem. most of the cells in the main part of the leaf are quite long and linear...but the cells at the base are much shorter, even a little inflated. Those cells are called 'alar' cells and are often differentiated in many species of moss and are used as an aid in identification of closely related species.

so..closer up, these cells look like this:

in Hypnum imponens they are often distinctly colored orange-brown as well.
Look for this common species the next time you are out hiking!

next post, i'll take a closer look at the other species found in bark - Leucobryum glaucum