skoksvalley's Identifications

This Orthotrichum was found growing on an alder tree along the waters of Mud Bay. It was about ten feet up in the air, hence the shot from below. There were also extensive mats of Kindbergia on the ground, and a variety of lichens on the tree.

I observed this moss at approximately 17:00 in the woods behind where I live. The temperature was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny. This dendroid moss lived upon a rotting log on the forest floor. The plant did not have rhizome-like rhizoids.

This moss is a relative new comer to North America. It is native to Europe. In Europe it is used for packing material when mailing items. It is believe that this moss came to North America via the mail.

In North America it is said to grow exclusivly in urban yards. This is not true as it also grows on the side walks.

I hope this moss invades and takes over my entire lawn so I won't have to mow it anymore.

Pseudoscleropodium purum in the Pacific Northwest
Elva Lawton
The Bryologist , Vol. 63, No. 4 (Winter, 1960), pp. 235-237
Published by: American Bryological and Lichenological Society
Article Stable URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.cals.evergreen.edu/stable/3240561

A European Feather Moss, Pseudoscleropodium purum, Naturalized Widely in New York State in Cemeteries
Norton G. Miller and Norman Trigoboff
The Bryologist , Vol. 104, No. 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 98-103
Published by: American Bryological and Lichenological Society
Article Stable URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.cals.evergreen.edu/stable/3244919

I really like this cute little cushion moss. I think the way that it keeps it's sporophytes tucked in is really cute. But I can't see this without a hand lens or a microphotograph.

This was hanging out on a brick wall with it's friend Tortula muralis. Tortula has the upright sporophytes in the background. I always see those two mosses growing together. They like the same niche I think.

Why does Tortula muralis get all the press when this moss is so much more adorable?

I actually found this simple thalloid liverwort a few weeks ago, but I had to go back to do a photo shoot with it! The streambank where it was growing was a mixture of gravel sized rocks. It was both submerged in the fast running water and up on the bank. the sizes of the thalli varied greatly. Some were probably 1cm in length while others like this one pictured were more than 6cm long! The midrib really thins out before the margins, and if you look closely the dark green color becomes somewhat translucent toward the edges.

Found on Thursday 23 February 2012 at around 13:00 very near the beach off of the Everegreen beach trail. Found growing in very sandy soil on slope underneath outsticking tree roots. Very shady, moist habitat. Appears to be acrocarpous; sporophytes present and appear to be growing out of the tips of some stems. Identified as Fissidens genus by the presence of vaginant laminae.

Park at Fir Meadows. Found what I believe to be Red Roof Moss growing on cement and on the ground around a cement block at the edge of the park. It is amall and growing in tufts. The sporophytes are reddish with upright capsules. The leaves are lance shaped and come to a sharp point.

This was growing about 35 feet up a very mature Big Leaf Maple tree (Acer macrophyllum). The tree with its many truncks fell across the trail so I was able to investigate the mid level-bryophytes growing on it.

Dorsal lobes are smaller than ventral lobes, both sets of lobes have teeth. Ventral lobe runs down stem, dorsal lobe does not.

This is growing as a turf with the tips curled down. On side view a stem looks very much like a green millipede with a red head.

Lobes are serrate at tip but entire near the base. Dorsal lobe is 1mm x 1mm ventral lobe is 2mm x1.5mm.

Cells are round to ovate size 25-30um. Plant is up to 5mm wide.

Green ovate balls on stalks were under dorsal lobes at tips of plant, if they were gemmea they were very big as I could clearly see the capsule and stalk with a 60X dissecting scope. Slo I think they must have been young sporophytes, especiall since I read that gemmea are only 2 celled.

This Orthotrichum was found growing on an alder tree along the waters of Mud Bay. It was about ten feet up in the air, hence the shot from below. There were also extensive mats of Kindbergia on the ground, and a variety of lichens on the tree.

I found this dendroid moss growing on the trunk of a Acer macrophyllum, or Big Leaf Maple tree. There are so many sporophytes on these mosses right now it was quite a sight! The conditions where I found this moss were very wet. The tree was less than a foot away from a large pond, and the moss was under the protective covering of not only the Maple, but of all the other dense overstory that was surrounding it. A lot of this area is cleared, but this moss was thriving in areas where there were stands of trees more than 5 thick.

This moss was growing on the bottom side of the roots of what was probably Tsuga heterophylla. I wanted to post it because of the way that this feather-like moss was cascading down from this trees roots. This particular specimen was located in a peat bog, that surprisingly had high diversity of bryophyte species. I saw many types of mosses and liverworts there.
This Kindbergia was occupying a small nook of the tree roots, holding its own. The length of the shoots is quite long, although I did not take exact measurements.

These were growing in a disturbed area at the Evergreen State College. They were under a Western Red Cedar tree and in a lawn, next to a sidewalk and a parking lot. The exposure is southern but it is still a some what moist site due to the forest canopy.

I went out and grabbed these during lunch when I heard that Shana Gross was going to teach us how to do leaf cross sections in the afternoon.

Shana is a master moss slicer! Everybody ooohed and ahhed at her amazing display of skill and agility on the dissecting scope.

After about an hour, I managed to get one good cross section, so here it is at 400 times manification. It is 137 microns from top to bottom. The original leaf was 5mm long and 1mm wide. That's big for a moss leaf... sigh..

I failed to get a mushroom gill cross section all of last quarter. So I was quite pleased to actually be able to finally cross section something today.

This Porella was swelling like a balloon on the tree that it was hanging on, because it was so full of water.
It was a misty wet morning when I was out for a walk and noticed it. This leafy liverwort was hard to pass up since it looked like it was wax, dripping down the trunk of a Big leaf maple. The sporophytes are mostly dehisced in 4 valves making this specimen especially interesting to look at. Since the Porella was so full of water at the time that I found it, the underleaves were especially apparent, as well as the complicate bilobed leaves.