Some local mosses (Pennsylvania)

[imported_lampeye]

I had time over the holidays to do some moss-spotting in my area (south-eastern Pennsylvania) and found some interesting things.

First, let me apologize for the total lack of pictures. I will get some in this thread ASAP.

After bringing myself up to speed on the moss hobby over the past couple of weeks, I remembered a park I used to frequent in my childhood. Inn the park there is a historical dwelling (from the revolutionary war era, I believe) and its spring, preserved for for posterity, and I remembered there were lumps/balls of moss in the spring. Armed with my new knowledge (ha!) of aquatic mosses, I returned there to find massive clumps (fist-sized and larger) of what appears to be Fissidens fontanus. It was a bit of a surprise, as I was expecting to find Fontinalis, but the "leaves" were arranged distichously. There was a second somewhat abundant species that seems to favor areas of lower flow. This species has a pronounced silvery apearance in water, but on close inspection this is due to it being covered with tiny bubbles. It doesn't LOOK like photos I've seen of Leptodictum riparium, but we'll see. It would be easy for me to get samples I could send to Dr. Tan; these are both strongly aquatic mosses. The bad news - the spring water is very cool year round. I am unsure whether these mosses could adapt to an unchilled tank. I have a clump of the "silvery" moss in a bottle on an east-facing windowsill. We'll see if it grows.

The second location for aquatic mosses is a bit unusual, as I'm certain these mosses ARE tropical or subtropical. There is a retail greeenhouse with a very large conservatory (fruiting date palms and full-sized fiddle-leaved fisg trees grow inside!) nearby. There is a 2-story ornamental waterfall built into it, and there is an abundance of moss growing on the rocks -it been growing there for well over 20 years that I can remember. Last weekend I was brave enough to pick a few samples. My first impression was that it was typical Singapore moss, but a closer look shows the "leaves" to be shaped differently than the varieties I've seen before. Let me grow it submerged for a while and I'll let you know what it looks like.

Under a leaky faucet on a greenhouse bench, I collected a sample of what strongly resembles Amblystegium serpens. It's underwater at the moment, so we'll see how it does.

I also collected two mosses from partially submerged rocks in St. Peter's Village, PA. One appears to be a Plagiomnium, the other a Fissidens with rounded leaf-tips. They have been surviving submerged since late October, but growth has been extremely slow.

Like I said - pics ASAP.

[timebomb]

Please post the pics as soon as you get them, Dave. It will be even more interesting for us if you can show us the pictures of the habitats where you found the mosses.

Someone here once showed us pictures of the Fissidens fontanus. He was from Mexico, I think. I couldn't find his thread but if I remember correctly the F. fontanus was growing completely submerged, clinging to the roots of a tree.

By the way, I wouldn't mind taking your mosses to Professor Benito Tan but these days, he's rather busy with the administrative work of his new job. Truth be told, he does not even have his microscopes with him anymore. When he left the university of Singapore to join the Botanic Gardens, his former employer would rather destroy the microscopes than to give them to him. It's a damn shame but that's the civil service for you in Singapore.

Loh K L