Red moss cushions

I'm still looking at that sedimentary rock outcrop. The first time I stopped, two weeks ago, most of the moss on the rocks was red. Ok; we've had a hot, dry spell, and moss does turn red or brown without rain. Then I went back once more, to look at the moss more closely. Still red and orange. And it had been raining. Hmmm ...

I went back again this week, in the pouring rain. Some spots of the moss have turned green, as expected, but the rest is dripping wet and still red.

Here it is, on the second visit, Aug. 28th. It had rained twice since the first visit.

And two days ago, in the rain. The greens are brighter. The reds are still red.

Some areas are a deep, winy red. At least three species of moss here, I think.

I loaded my photos on two different search engines. For the top two photos, both suggested Fire Moss, Ceratodon purpureus. Except that Google, for the same photo, once I added in that it was on Vancouver Island, said, no, it's not a moss at all, but Orange Rock Hair, Trentepohlia aurea, a green alga. And some photos of this do look similar. Others not so much. I'm not convinced.

And then, I loaded the third photo. Now Google gives me Star moss, Syntrichia sp. as well as the Fire moss again.

EFlora (UBC) says, about the Fire Moss, "Forming dense, short turfs varying from dark green to wine-­red, with erect, usually unbranched shoots, stems red-brown; leaves somewhat contorted when dry." That sounds about right.

I collected two handfuls of moss from the bottom of the slope and brought them home for a closer look. 

Google image search calls this Juniper haircap moss, Polystrichum juniperinum. Could be.

And this, they say, is fire moss, Ceratodon purpureus.

So is this, they say.

I'll have to take a fourth trip out, with a long stick to knock off one of those red pillows from higher up. Sunday, maybe; it's not supposed to be raining.

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Sigo pensando en ese afloramiento rocoso. La primera vez que lo vi, hace quince dias, casi todo el musgo que crece en las rocas estaba rojo. Bueno, hemos tenido un verano seco, y los musgos sí se vuelven rojos o cafés cuando no llueve. Pero luego regresé para verlo mejor. Y seguía rojo y anaranjado. Y eso después de 2 dias de lluvia. ¿Qué pasa aquí?

Regresé otra vez esta semana. Llovía; había estado lloviendo todo el dia. Y algunos de los cojines de musgo se han vuelto verdes, como era de esperar, pero la mayor parte sigue rojo. Empapado, pero rojo.

    1. Esto es el dia 28 de agosto, en la segunda visita. Ya había llovido dos veces desde la visita anterior.

    2. Y aquí está el 2 de septiembre, en la lluvia. Los musgos verdes se han puesto más brillantes. Los rojos siguen rojos.

    3. En algunos lugares, el musgo es un rojo oscuro. En esta foto, creo, hay 3 especies de musgo.

Subí las fotos a dos buscadores. Con las primeras dos fotos, los dos sugerieron Musgo del Fuego, Ceratodon purpureus. Pero Google me dió otra identificación cuando le dije que el sitio estaba en la isla Vancouver; entonces, en cambio, dijo que no era musgo sino Trentepohlia aurea, un alga verde a que le dan el nombre de Pelo Anaranjado de las Rocas. Y algunas de las fotos se parecen. Otras no. No me convence.

Cuando subí la tercera foto, Google me sugerió Musgo Estrella, Syntrichia sp., y  también el musgo del Fuego otra vez.

EFlora (UBC) dice, acerca del musgo del Fuego, "Forma cojines espesos y cortos que van desde verde oscuro a rojo vino, con tallos erguidos, generalmente sin ramas, color rojo/marrón; las hojas algo retorcidos cuando están secas."  Eso los describe bastante bien.

Recogí dos cojincitos de musgo de donde los pude alcanzar en la base del afloramiento y los traje a casa para verlos mejor.

    4. Google dice que esto es el musgo junípero, Polytrichum juniperinum. Puede ser.

    5. Y esto, dice, es Ceratodon purpureus.

    6. Y este también.

Tendré que regresar otra vez, con un palo largo para desprender uno de esos cojines de un lugar más alto. El domingo, tal vez; dicen que no va a estar lloviendo. 

And then again ...

 More green stuff on rocks.

Amphidium lapponicum, Lapland Bottle Moss. I think.

The pale brushy things are reproductive structures. On the lower right, they're joined by pixie-cup lichens.

These are growing up and down the cliffs at McCreight Lake. 6 years ago, I found some like them at Buttle Lake; I identified them, then, going by my guide book, as Amphidium lapponicum. 

Ecology: On moist rock cliffs, especially on siliceous rock, but also on basalt and other slightly basic rock. (Plants of Coastal BC)

Double-checking this time, I looked up E-Flora BC; there are two other almost identical species, A. californicum and A. mougeotii. They grow in the same places, but A. lapponicum grows in crevices in the rock; the other two will grow on the bare rock face. Looking at all my photos, I can't be sure if there are hidden crevices under these mounds.

But. I found on the iNaturalist map another example of the Lapland moss, (go look) growing on Mount Kitchener, just across the lake from these. "On volcanic rock @ ~ 1350 m.", the observer noted.

Near enough.

So, for now, I'm sticking to the Lapland moss.

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Y más vida verde entre las rocas. Siempre hay más.

Fotos:

#1, 2: Musgo "botella de Laponia", Amphidium lapponicum. Creo. Las estructuras pálidas serán los cuerpos reproductivos del musgo. En la segunda foto, abajo y a la derecha, también hay unos líquenes de copa de hada.

Estos están creciendo en gran profusión sobre la roca de los acantilados a la orilla del lago McCreight. Hace 6 años encontré otros iguales en el centro de la isla, al lado de Buttle Lake. Los identifiqué, siguiendo mi libro guía, como Amphidium lapponicum, "Musgo de botella de Laponia".

Ecología: en acantilados rocosos y húmedos, especialmente en roca silíceo, pero también en basalto y otras rocas levemente básicas. (Plants of Coastal BC)

Revisando mi previa identificación, examiné las entradas en E-Flora BC; hay otras dos especies de Amphidium que son casi idénticas, solo que A. lapponicum crece en las grietas de la roca, y las otras dos, A. californicum y A. mougeotii pueden crecer en roca lisa, sin grietas. Viendo bien todas mis fotos, no puedo estar segura si hay o no hay grietas escondidas bajo estos cojines.

Pero en el mapa de iNaturalist, encontré otro ejemplar del musgo Lapónico, creciendo en el Monte Kitchener, justo al otro lado del sitio donde yo estaba. (Haz clic.) "Sobre roca volcánica, a aproximadamente 1350 m.," apuntó el observador.

Mapa: Bastante cerca.

Pues, por ahora, sigo pensando que sí es el musgo Lapónico.

Jungle blanket

Anything that sits still in the rainforest ends up with a green quilt.

Moss on a burl.

I've been struggling to learn to identify the many mosses in our forests, with limited success. I think this may possibly be electrified cat's tail moss, Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus. I could be wrong, of course.

Species name referring to the triangular leaves and the occasional three-rowed arrangement of the uppermost leaves of some stems. ... Commonly called the rough neck moss or shaggy moss because of the untidy leaves at the shoot tips. A whimsical name, electri­fied cat tail moss, has gained some popularity in British Columbia.
Distinguishing characteristics:
The very coarse, pale yellow-green plants with usually untidy divergent leaves of the main stem tip and upper branches, the strongly pleated, somewhat wrinkled leaves and the two strong midribs serve as useful characters. (E-Flora BC)

Zooming in.

Coarse moss: check.
Triangular, wrinkled, pleated leaves: check.
I couldn't get a clear view of a double midrib.
Divergent leaves at upper stem tip: check.
Yellow-green (spring green): check.
On logs, rocks, and here, a rotting burl: check.

But I still could be mistaken. Moss is as confusing as gulls or mushrooms.

Piece of cake. Not.

I found this patch of moss growing on old, crumbly pavement behind an equally crumbly log in a vacant lot.

Miniature palm trees and striped poles.

Mosses are difficult to identify, but this one looked easy. A forest of tiny, spiky trees, and those distinctive, long, multicoloured sporophytes, growing on a mineral base. I looked through all my saved photos. Not there. Those sporophytes weren't in my guide book. I carefully plowed through all 206 E-Flora species. No luck.

I pondered the Juniper Haircap moss, but the sporophytes didn't match. And the photos showed little red-brown crowns on the "trees".

I Googled until my eyes were watering. And finally found it.

Juniper Haircap, after all.

UBC Botanical Garden photo, by Daniel Mosquin. Creative Commons.

It all depends on the time of year. And whether its male or female. And how old the sporophytes are.

It grows in two phases; the first phase has no sporophytes. The sporophytes grow only on the female plants. Male and female plants may grow in separate clumps. (USDA). The males have those reddish crowns; the females don't.

Male Juniper Haircap stems. Photo by Ian Sutton.

Then the sporophytes, growing on female plants, show up in the second stage. At first, they are upright and slender, but as they age, they bend over and fatten up. Most of the photos I found showed the older sporophytes.

Nothing is ever easy, is it?

Identify this moss

It's been hot and dry for so long; even in the shady woods, the mosses are crispy and dark. This one was struggling along on a rock beside Woodhus Creek.

Unidentified moss. The leaves are still trying to stay green, and it's making spores.

The sporangium (spore case) is barrel-like, with teeth at the mouth (the peristome), standing upright on a tall stem (the seta). And this stem is twisted into a spiral.

Zooming in.

I don't know what species of moss this is. I remember once seeing something about a moss stem twisted this way, but I don't remember where. And I haven't found it in several hundred photos on Google.

Help!

Trying to understand

Mosses are confusing enough. But Ma Nature likes to have us completely bewildered. So we have liverworts, which look like mosses, act like mosses, and grow intermingled with mosses. Our guide on the moss walk kept pointing out bits of green that looked like all the other bits of green, and calling them liverworts. Even with the hand lens I was carrying, I couldn't see the difference.

"And what is that one?"

Everything's somewhere on the web, if you look long enough. I found a site from Australia that explains the difference so clearly that even I can see it.

First, look for sporophytes, the spore-bearing capsules.

The green or red capsules are sporophytes, growing spores.

It's always possible, and very easy, to determine whether you have a moss, liverwort or hornwort if sporophytes are present. Remember that a sporophyte consists of a spore capsule, with or without a supporting stalk or seta.

Are groups of spore capsules held aloft on complex structures?
The bryophyte is a liverwort.

A fuzzy head, like a pussy willow or a grass ear, would be a complex structure. If the "moss" has those, it's a liverwort.

If the stem is translucent (and often colourless) the bryophyte in question is almost certainly a liverwort.

If the stalk supporting the capsule is opaque and coloured green, brown or red the bryophyte in question is a moss.

 If sporophytes are absent you'll naturally need to look at some gametophyte features, the first step being to see whether you have a thallose or a leafy bryophyte. A thallose bryophyte is either a liverwort or a hornwort. A leafy bryophyte is either a moss or a liverwort.

(Hornworts are aquatic; we can ignore them for now.)

If the plant has no clear stems or leaves, it is thallose, and therefore a liverwort.

The first thing to do is to see whether you have a thallose or a leafy bryophyte. The almost leathery thallus of a robust thallose bryophyte is fairly easy to pick. Similarly, in some leafy species the leaves-on-stems growth habit is very easy to see. 

For this, with some of the plants, we need a lens; some liverwort thalli look like stems and leaves to the naked eye.

So the photo above is clearly a moss. The sporophytes are simple, held on a tall stalk, with red tints. The leaves grow attached to the stems, not as continuations of the stem. (Look at the stem below the red sporophyte on the right.)

In the great majority of moss species the mature spore capsule opens by means of a well-defined mouth. Remember that a liverwort spore capsule never has a well-defined mouth.

To see that, a lens is probably needed. And being there at the right time, when the spores are mature, or already released.

There is much more info on the page I'm quoting, details on how to distinguish thallose from leafy structures, photos, and exceptions to the rules. (Aren't there always?) But the sporophyte detail is enough for a rough guide, for now, for me.

The moss is green and leafy; even in this photo, the stems are visible as a separate structure from the leaves. The liverwort is one of the leafy ones; the leaves are short and stubby. Luckily, it's red.

Electrified cat's tail

Mosses are difficult to identify. (Typical Canadian understatement; begin again.) Mosses are fiendishly difficult to identify.

They change from one day to the next, depending on the weather. They grow in compact mounds, uniformly coloured, one leaf blending into the next. They are multicultural; as many as 40 different species can live together on one tree, intermingled. Male and female plants may seem to be separate species. And they are best seen in the pouring rain, when cameras and magnifying lenses are at a disadvantage.

Back at home, Googling mosses, looking at photos, I find apparent matches. But most of them, once I follow the links, refer to them generically, as "moss". It seems that other people are as befuddled as I am.

Moss experts try to help, giving specific mosses easily remembered names. "Finger-licking good moss," "palm tree moss," "beaked moss," "wavy-leaved cotton moss," "goose-neck moss," and my favourite, "electrified cats'-tail moss." Now, the problem is remembering which of all those green, spiky mosses goes with which handy name.

This, I think, is Oregon beaked moss. I could (easily) be wrong. Note the lone, red sporophyte. (Or Rhytidiadelphus loreus? See comment by Matt Goff.*)

And this should be Electrified cats-tail, Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus.

Zooming in on one of the dozens of mosses on a short trail. Unidentified, for the moment. (Buckiella undulata*)

This one has a strong central stem. (Oregon beaked moss?*)

And in this one, the stem and branches are brown, even on a wet, green day. The branches here are opposite: compare to those on the Oregon beaked moss, which are alternate. (Glittering wood moss, Hylocomium splendens.*)

A hanging moss. These grow mainly on branches. (Brachythecium?*)

I thought I had memorized the order in which our guide, Jocie Brooks, had showed us the mosses, and could co-ordinate them with the sequence of photos. I was too optimistic. We saw repeats at random throughout the walk, and my list got scrambled in my mossy brain.

At least I remember clearly which one was the "Finger-licking good moss". Unfortunately, by then my camera had gone on strike because of the rain. Can't win.

*Updated after comments by Matt Goff.