Moss ID..

[rainman]

Hi all! I was just wondering if anyone knew what kind of moss this is:







I was told it was mini christmas moss but is there any way to be sure of what it is? sorry for the crappy pics thanks!

[Philosophos]

It looks like Taiwan moss to me, but I don't know what qualifies the taxonomy for either one. I'm comparing these two pages to form my opinion:
http://www.aquamoss.net/Christmas-Mo...stmas-Moss.htm
http://www.aquamoss.net/Taiwan-Moss/Taiwan-Moss.htm

[rainman]

hi Philosophos, it does look like taiwan moss to me.. then i found this link (you'll have to scroll about a 1/4 down the page):

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=49058

now i'm confused as hell!

[Philosophos]

Honestly, I think this is more confusing than trying to figure out the correct binomial for appistos. I can't find anything on the scientific name for miniature christmas moss. I haven't had any luck searching for taxonomic scrutinies of regular christmas moss (Vesicularia montagnei). The best I've been able to find is this:
http://zipcodezoo.com/Plants/V/Vesicularia_montagnei/

The only other potentially useful information that I could find was in journals, but it seems to cost $30 to access most of the papers in them. If you've got a university near by, you're probably better off heading that way.

[Fuzzy]

I'll have to agree it looks like Taiwan moss.

I am growing Taiwan and Christmas Moss both in my CRS Tank, I could pull off a little of each for a side by side comparison shot maybe.

[rainman]

thanks for the replies guys.. the thing is, i have taiwan moss(or at least that's what i used to think it was) and it doesn't quite look like the moss i featured. some bro on another forum said it looked like his peacock moss, which i didn't think so..

[rainman]

Just tied some of it to a piece of DW.. have to say, it was quite tough as the fronds are much smaller than what i'm used to.. let's see how it turns out!