Moss and Liverworts in Hawaii

[greenmiddlefinger]

I just got back from a trip to Maui, where I met up with my . . . uncle's father-in-law. Anyway, I call him Granpa, great guy. He's an ex-ranger and knows a lot of the plants on the island and all the nature trails. When he found out I was interested in moss he offered to take us on a hike way up in the mountains where the mist collects. Maui has been in a drought for the last five years, but I still had a lot of success on the hike.

For reference, I'll just assign all the plants a letter.

Moss A


This is a moss I have found near my house before, it grows everywhere and is hardy and common. I have even grown it submerged for over a month. Semi-aquatic I believe. However, the fronds grow straight up and becomes very stringy. Not as attractive as the terrestrial form in my opinion.

Moss B


I know it's hard to tell from the photo, but this moss' frounds are longer and very thick which is different from moss A. I found this moss growing at river edge, right above the surface in places it would be splashed. No submerged growth unfortunately.

Moss C


We came accross a small cliff where water was constantly running over the rocks and mud. The source was a spring above. This place was very interesting, as there were many mosses and liverworts growing beneath the flow of water and in places where the water splashed over rocks. There was even wild duckweed and riccia growing on the hill! Anyway, this moss C was growing prolifically on that cliff. It has very long, giant trianglular fronds.



A single strand of moss C in my hand.

Moss D


Moss D was from the same cliff, but only grew in places where water was constantly running over it. It feels very hard like a liverwort. The moss has very compact triangular growth with very short fronds.



A single frond of moss D in my fingertips.

Moss E


This is a river-side moss growing only under rock edges where water would splash it. Still, no submerged growth. It has very dainty light green fronds. It's hard to describe the shape. It's like the vertabrae of the moss is attached to the rock, and then smaller fronds grow up from it with the taller ones near the base of the vertabrae and getting shorter until the tip. Hope that helps to describe it. I don't have a macro lense so this is the best I can do.

Moss F


This was found on the cliff, by the river side, on trees, in decorative pools for koi at the hotel, on rocks under the artificial water-fall at the hotel, outside my hotel room, floating on the surface of the ponds, you get the picture. Still, it was floating on the water so I figured I'd get a sample.

Speaking of decorative ponds at the hotel, those things were completely invaded by submersed sagitteria. I asked the manager, and he said it was not a plant that had been planted in the pond. Made sense to me because it was growing in some places where no one would see it. It was pretty to see, but it disturbs me a bit that the plant could be rabidly spreading on its own. It was flowering a lot too.

Liverwort A


This was one of the liverworts growing on the cliff where it could be moistened by the spring. It has serrated edges and is very hard.

Liverwort B


Another liverwort from the spring-cliff. As you can see, this one has very massive thalli! It did not mat like the other mosses or liverworts, but would often be growing amongst them.

Liverwort C


Another liverwort from the spring-cliff. It has very compact growth with small, dark green, forking thalli. My first thought that it was a riccardia species?




Isn't this a pretty liverwort? NOT!! This is actually a fern! It just happens to have fronds less than half the size of my fingernail! One of the very smallest ferns in the world. It is a species that only grows in Hawaii. This particular fern dries out pretty easily, so it only grows in parts of the islands with high humidity and often grows amongst mosses to help it conserve liquid. It is very easy to mistake this fern for a moss as it grows amongst them. There is quite a bit of it growing in the jungles by my house in Nuuanu though. I wonder if it can grow aquatically . . .



I emptied out one of my planted 10g tanks to make a viva-type set up for all the new bryophytes (and the fern). I tried to plant everything both above and below the water in different places. The fern I planted above water only under the water fall. I want to slowly assimilate it I guess. It's set up so that the filter out-flow pours over the emersed plants.

What type of lighting will give the best chance of success? The tank currently has medium, medium-low lighting. I could make it high lighting, but I'm not sure if that's best for the mosses/liverworts. Can someone give me a hint? I do have CO2 running in the water.



BTW-- I also ran accross "willow moss" at an LFs. For those curious Hawaii people, it's Pet's and Plants. Well, we all know how often "willow moss" is willow moss. Still, the moss definitely looks and feels different from any of the Taxiphylum or Vasicularia I've grown previously in my tanks. Here's some photos:



I tied it to the filter out-flow in my grow-out tank.



Well, here's to hoping that it actually is willow moss, and that at least some of the plants I brought back will make the adjustment to aquatic life. I hope you guys enjoy this post!

[timebomb]

Great post, Steven but you need a better camera

It's hard to tell from the pics but I think Moss D has great potential as an aquatic moss. It exhibits triangular shapes like the various species of Vesicularia we know.

Moss F doesn't look like it will survive underwater but you never know until you try.

The moss you bought from the fish shop in Hawaii does not look like the Willow Moss we know. Rather, the one that looks like Fontanalis antipyretica is Moss E.

Keep us informed on how the mosses and liverworts you collected do in your tank. For those that do well and you want to know their identities, please send me a small sample and I'll show them to the professor.

Loh K L

[greenmiddlefinger]

Thanks for the quick reply Loh. I agree on moss F-- it doesn't look like aquatic moss at all. I only bothered with it because of the places it was growing, and I felt it would be just lazy not to try. Also the willow moss really doesn't look like the photos of Fontinalis we've all been passing around. Well, it isn't java moss and it's something I haven't grown before (whatever it is) so I thought it would be cool.

As for the camera, it's a very powerful digital SLR my Mom bought. I'm just an incompetant photographer. I opened the instruction manuel and was like . I've heard that macro-lenses really make the difference, but I don't want to cough up the 60+ dollars to get one.

[RRG]

Awesome post Steven!

I should have asked you earlier if you needed company on your trip.

I knew that Hawaii has a native liverwort, but I didn’t know we have that many varieties. Although I think it is possible that they are the same species but different thallus structure because of its environment. I hope those liverworts could be grown submerge. Do you think the liverworts you have found could be growing in areas of Oahu, too?


We also has another fern that only grows in Hawaii; the rare, endangered Marsilea villosa. I tried growing this plant in my tank, with somewhat of a success. In the first few weeks, I observed that the clover-like leaves opens in a certain hours and then it fold close. Eventually, after that few weeks the leaves turned brown because the leaves are the emersed form. For over two months this plant is still producing shoots—however that shoots is not producing any new leaves.

Steven if you have highlight tank you should experiment with M. villosa. Because the plant is being shaded by other plants and my tank is low light, the shoots that the plant produce in your tank will probably turn into fronds or leaves.


By the way, the LFS store where you bought the “willow moss”, is it located in Aiea?

[greenmiddlefinger]

Hey Rand!

Yes, I do think that these plants probably grow on Oahu too. The difficult part is getting someone to take you to a high enough elevation, and also finding a proper area. I've been hiking around Oahu and never found these plants-- it's just up to luck.

It is possible that there are over-laps in the "species" above and they might simply be different growth forms of each other. From what I have read, Hawaii is actually home to a massive bio-diversity of bryophytes, both moss and liverworts-- including (from the book) multiple species of both taxiphyllum and fissiden. However, none of them naturally grow submerged.

I do have marsilea villosa growing in one of my tanks. Did you buy your at home depot like I did? Mine is growing in a 1g with 7 watts of lighting. mind you, it never has submerged form leaves . . . I'm not even sure if the plant is capable of it. Does send runners everywhere, but it just pops the leaves above water. One would need a very deep tank that still gives high lighting to see if there is an aquatic form, because the plant's natural tendancy is to have floating leaves. I've personally kind of given up on it as an aquarium decoration, but it would make a stunning vivarium plant I think.

The 1g marsilea tank:


Marsilea quadrifolia is slowly carpeting, and the talls stems shooting everywhere is marsilea villosa.

I mentioned the name above where I found the moss, "Pet's and Plants." The shop is pretty close to pearl city shopping center.

[timebomb]

The difficult part is getting someone to take you to a high enough elevation, and also finding a proper area. I've been hiking around Oahu and never found these plants-- it's just up to luck.

Steven, you spoke of mountains earlier. How high did you have to go before you found the mosses and liverworts? Did you take the pictures of the habitats where they were found?

Loh K L

[greenmiddlefinger]

I did take photos of the area, but they weren't digital. It was a disposable camera my parents used for the rest of the vacation too so. We should develop it soon I think. I have a scanner so I'll post the photos.