A Mossy Bath Rug

A friend sent me this link to a bath mat made of moss. They don't specify what types of mosses they are using, but it looks to be Hypnum or maybe Thuidium. It would make for a pretty interesting bathroom experiment. Mosses do not require too much light and they love high humidity levels, thus the bathroom sounds like the perfect place.

I do wonder where they are getting the mosses. Wild collected, from a local landscaper, or are they growing them for this particular project?  

2009 Andrews Foray

I had a great time at the foray this past weekend! There were approximately 20 amateurs and professionals who came to study the lichens and mosses of northeastern Connecticut. I ran into an old friend who I hadn’t seen in years and I met some new folks who I hope to see in the future.

Over the course of the weekend we explored three different sites: Boston Hollow in the Yale Meyer’s Forest near Westford, Cat Den Swamp in the Natchaug State Forest near Eastford, and an area of the Windham Bog. (I didn’t make it to the last site due to a previous commitment, but that is where they said they were going.) The weekend weather was perfect! A little cool with the snap of the coming fall in the air and crisp blue skies overhead.

The first site was identified by the lichenologists as a talus slope with a wet seepy area near the road. I had to ask for the definition of talus and was told that it is a fancy word for a pile of rocks at the base of a cliff or slope. They were pretty big rocks and I probably would have called them boulders, but tallus works well too. Being out in the field with bryologists who can identify more plants than I can was a little intimidating, but it also resulted in my learning to recognize a number of new species in the field.

I spent most of my time acting as a sponge absorbing information and only took a few photos. Unfortunately when I went back to pick some to put up with this post I was disappointed to find some really fuzzy photos and only a couple that are even close to in focus. Despite that I will post a few up here for a splash of green and give you some description of them below.

Above center is some Mniaceae. (the 'M' is silent in the pronunciation) The leaves are whirled into a splash cup that is filled with male sex organs (antheridia). To the above-right is a very small moss whose spore filled capsules are not elevated on a stalk. Thus they appear to be sitting directly on the soil. This is a member of the genus Diphyscium. The above-left is a common genus that I often see in Connecticut forests, but a new species for me. It is Thuidium minutulum. I love the name. It means the miniature Thuidium and that is just what it looks like. A very small slender version of the robust Thuidium that I often see covering rocks or soil in Connecticut.

A special thanks goes out to Juan Sanchez who organized the trip and lodging.

I will have another story about the foray later this week or next. Stay tuned for more mosses...

Winter Mosses

A friend of mine recently moved to Virginia and on a hike in the Shenandoah National Park she spotted some mosses growing on boulders in the winter snow. Since I still have not taken any moss photos this winter, I decided to share hers on the blog.

This rock looks to have some type of Orthotrichaceae with brown sporophytes left over from last season. There also appears to be some Dicranum sp. in the lower left of the photo. These are just my best guess given what I can make out from the photo.

For this photo I am not sure what type of moss is in the lower center of the photo. Would anyone like to hazard a guess? As for the large patch of lighter green moss, I would bet money that is a species of Thuidium.

Thanks for sending the photos Em!

Mossy Frog at the New England Aquarium

I visited Boston a couple of weeks ago and we stopped in for an afternoon at the New England Aquarium. It was my first visit and I enjoyed it immensely. My favorites included the 70 year old green sea turtle who doesn't like to eat broccoli, but she does like lettuce and brussel sprouts. They also have a great exhibit about jellyfish. The jellyfish were very beautifully dangerous floating around in their tanks. The exhibit also included a lot of educational information regarding jellyfish populations and global climate change. With the warming of the oceans we are in for some serious jellyfish overpopulation issues and since these animals are predators they are going to eat quite a lot of the other sea creatures. Good for the jellyfish. Bad for everything else.

In a surprising turn of events I ran into some moss at the aquarium! Mainly it was used in the exhibits of the tropical species to soften the surroundings, keep things moist, and add some greenery. The photo below was the mossiest one of them all!


And what animal just happens to live in the display full of moss? Oh, the mossy frog Theloderma corticale. Many organisms have common names that describe the other plants or animals that they look like. There are the fern mosses (Thuidium sp.) and the feather mosses (Hypnum sp.), just to name a few.

I would have to agree that this frog is well camoflauged to sit on mossy tree trunks and hide from predators. It is an example of an organism evolving to blend in with its surroundings. Those frogs who did not blend in would have been eaten by predators and those that blended in would have been survived to reproduce more mossy looking frogs. This system of natural selection over many years has led to the highly patterned and frilly frog that we see today. (Check out the bottom photo to get a sense of how frilly the arms and legs of the frog were. That was my favorite part about him/her!)


Here is a close up shot of the little guy/gal. I had a hard time shooting through the glass front of the exhibit , so I apologize for the fuziness. You can see some additional photos on the wiki page of this frog species.