A moss that is easely recognised : a group of Polytrichum look
like a miniature Conifer forest. Seen from above it looks like
little stars, and its only confused with other members of
Polytrichonum family: P. formosum and P. longisetum.
Polytrichum grows is very common and can be found in forest
but also in fields and marshes. P formosum can't be
distingueshed from P. Commune and grows on the same places
but prefers places that are more dry.
Polytrichum in the garden and terrarium
You can't buy it in the shop , so you have to dig it out
in a forest. Try to remove it as a hole. If you place it in
a Japanese garden then use stapstones also. In a terrarium
its a nice looking evergreen plant, salamanders use it as a
cover.
These are small evergreen plants that can be found
on wet or damp shady places. They have a tiny root system
and reproduce by forming spores. Many mosses are less than
2cm long, very rarely more than 20 centimeter. Most mosses
can be found in the tropical regions, but mosses and
liverworts can even be found on Antartica.
The mosses are called Bryophytes and there are three divisions:
The mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
Mosses are different than the higher plants: mosses don't have
vasculair tissue. So the stems, leaves and roots contain no
vasculair tissue and are therefor not capable to transport large
amounts of fluids.
Most mosses consist of haploid cells: cells that have only one
sample of every chromosome (this is written as n), all the higher
plants (and animals)have two samples of every chromosome,
written as 2n. Have a look at the reproduction of common hair cap:
Moss structures:
Roots
Mosses have small tiny basal processes which
have the function and as roots, but have more the function
rhizoid holdfasts, they are called rhizomes. Leaves
The leaves of roots don't contain vasculair tissue and are only
one cell thick, they are called phyllids, The stem
The stem don't contain vasculair tissue or , but have
hydroid cells that store water.The stem is also called
shoot.
This website shows the common mosses:
