Moss Plants and More

An Ecotourism Vacation

2013-05-17T01:33:00.002-04:00

The end of the school year has me thinking about summer vacations and I have just added a new location to my vacation wish list. The Cape Horn region of southern Chile and Argentina sounds like an amazing place to visit! The area has high levels of bryophyte diversity and a beautiful landscape of waterways and islands. Unfortunately my summer vacation plans do not include the Cape Horn this year. Instead I have been reading a book all about ecotourism of the miniature forests and imagining myself there.

Miniature Forests of Cape Horn: Ecotourism with a Hand Lens (2012) by Bernard Goffinet, Ricardo Rozzi, Lily Lewis, William Buck, and Francisca Massardo.

This book makes it easy to imagine you are far away in the Cape Horn. There are many full color photos of the landscape and a up close photos of the plants. They also identify the many species of mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichen that live in the Cape Horn region. The book has text in both English and Spanish, as you can tell from the cover.

For some of the species they describe interesting structures, such as the lamellae on the leaves of the Polytrichaceae.

For others, cool interactions, such as the flies that are attracted to moss capsules and disperse the sticky spores are featured.

Overall I think that it is a great book. I may be a little biased since I know two of the authors quite well (Goffinet was my PhD advisor and Lewis was my labmate at the University of Connecticut). I think that the book is a great outreach tool and I hope that many people will take them up on visiting the area to see the amazing miniature plants.

May 2013 Desktop Calendar

2013-04-30T18:00:00.000-04:00

I think that this moss covered rock looks a lot like a large turtle shell, or maybe a tortoise. It was about the size of the hood of a small car, so a lot larger than a turtle, but you get the idea.

This month's calendar was also taken at the top of the ridge in the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve. I wanted to be sure that I got the calendar prepped and posted before the start of the month. The las couple of months ran a little late.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

3 - If the image does not fit your desktop neatly, you may have to adjust the image (Mac: System Preferences - Desktop and Screen Saver - Desktop; Windows: Control Panel - Display - Desktop) and choose "Fill screen" as the display mode of your background image.

Mosses in the Arctic

2013-04-30T11:54:00.003-04:00

When you think about the arctic what do you imagine? Things that come to mind for me are northern Canada, Siberia, flat, cold, caribou, reindeer, polar bears, and mosses. Yes, there are a lot of mosses that live in the arctic. Not many plants grow that far north, but mosses can handle the extremes. They are tough. There are not many different species of mosses in the arctic, but a significant bulk of the plant life (biomass) is mosses.

This study examines how much mosses contribute to the ecosystem by storing carbon in their plant bodies (biomass). They found that the mosses contributed 25% of the gross primary productivity (above and below ground growth) in the arctic ecosystem that they examined. This is a significant contribution to the ecosystem carbon cycle! Hence one of the authors' final conclusions is that mosses need to be included in vegetation carbon models in order to have an accurate picture of the carbon cycling.

I think that this is a really important take-home message. Especially in far northern ecosystems, mosses make up a large portion of the plant life. If we are to understand and plan for the effects of global climate change on these far northern places, we cannot ignore the mosses.

Street LE, Subke JA, Sommerkorn M, Sloan V, Ducrotoy H, Phoenix GK, Williams M (2013). The role of mosses in carbon uptake and partitioning in arctic vegetation. The New phytologist PMID: 23614757

Sphagnum mosses (aka. peat mosses, pictured below) were one of the focal species of their study.

Photosynthesis in Hornworts

2013-04-22T00:09:00.001-04:00

Photosynthesis is the most important biological reaction on the planet. It creates the sugars and starches that we and other animals rely upon for food. Photosynthesis also helps to regulate the climate by binding up carbon from the air to keep the planet cooler. Plants need carbon dioxide, water, and light to carry out photosynthesis.

Hornworts have a cool structure called a pyrenoid that helps to increase the rate of photosynthesis in these plants. Pyrenoids increase the concentration of carbon dioxide close to the enzyme RuBisCO, which is critical for photosynthesis. A recent study examined pyrenoid evolution in the hornworts, the bryophyte lineage most closely related to flowering plants. They asked whether the evolution of the pyrenoid in hornworts was correlated with historically low levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is predicted that low levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would put pressure on plants to evolve mechanisms that enable them to increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in their cells in order to increase rates of photosynthesis.

Villarreal, J. & Renner, S. (2012). Hornwort pyrenoids, carbon-concentrating structures, evolved and were lost at least five times during the last 100 million years Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (46), 18873-18878 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1213498109

Their results support the pyrenoid structure evolving 5 or 6 times across the hornworts (transition from blue to red in the figure below). Pyrenoid evolution does not appear to be synchronous, each time the pyrenoid evolved across the tree was at a different time in the past. If they had evolved in response to changes in the atmosphere, we would predict that they evolved at the same time. They also did not find a relationship between low atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and pyrenoid evolution. Even when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were low, new hornwort species evolved that did not have a pyrenoid. If the pyrenoid was really advantageous, we would predict that when the carbon dioxide levels were low only species with a pyrenoid would evolve new species. Based on this and other findings, they propose that the evolution of the pyrenoid may be related to something other than the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide

Figure 1 from Villarreal & Renner 2012. This shows the relationships
between different species of hornworts. The species in blue do not have pyrenoids
and the species in red do have pyrenoids. The black and white inset images show the
different types of pyrenoids found in hornwort species.

Who is your favorite scientist?

2013-04-10T13:08:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite scientists is Dr. Katherine Esau. I think that her book Anatomy of Seed Plants is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the structure of plants. It is just too bad that the text doesn't cover bryophytes and ferns. I would love to read her interpretations and thoughts for teaching students about bryophyte structures. We have tried using other textbooks to teach a university level plant anatomy course, such as Introduction to Plant Structure and Development, but ended up returning to Esau's text. The text is a little dated (the second edition came out in 1977), but only in the sense that it does not include the most recent literature and thus lacks a molecular perspective. (Books on plant structure and development that connect to gene function, which I like, include The Molecular Organography of Plants and Mechanisms in Plant Development.) Recently a 3rd edition of Esau's Anatomy of Seed Plants has been updated by Ray Evert. This version is a nice addition, but in my opinion is much more a reference book for your shelf than a text to be used for teaching. I think that Esau's Anatomy of Seed Plants is the best text to teach students the basics of interpreting plant structures.

Dr. Esau in 1958. Image from the collection of UC Santa Barbara,
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

Dr. Esau's early life was full of twists and turns. Her family fled Czarist Russia to Berlin in 1918/1919. Then she immigrated to the United States in 1922 and continued her studies out in California. A couple of nice articles have been written that summarize her life story. One is published in the Plant Science Bulletin and the other is in The Botanical Review.

Her research focused on the development and structure of plant phloem. Phloem are the cells that move sugars around inside the plant body. One of her major research tools was the electron microscope, pictured below. I think that electron microscopes are a lot of fun to use. It is amazing how far you can zoom in and all the cellular details that you can see!

Dr. Esau working at the microscope.
Image from the collection of UC Santa Barbara,
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

I was inspired to write this post by the blog Dead Scientist of the Week.

April 2013 Desktop Calendar

2013-04-08T01:33:00.000-04:00

I went for a hike this weekend at the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve. It was a really great hike up into the Coast Range with some great views of the mountains and beyond! We saw some nice mosses like this small Fissidens and the spring wildflowers were in bloom.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

This is the view back into the mountains.

And this is looking over the ridge out into the central valley. We could see the towns of Winters and Davis, and then way off in the distance is the skyline of Sacramento.

I would definitely recommend this hike to anyone in the area. Great views from ~1500 feet up and a lot of great plants to check out!

Berry Go Round - March 2013

2013-04-02T13:16:00.001-04:00

The newest edition of the plant carnival Berry Go Round is up at the blog In the Company of Plants and Rocks. There are some good plant posts in the line up that you should definitely check out.

The photos from Geotripper of spring wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada foothills are getting me excited about going hiking this upcoming weekend. We had a good amount of rain this week and I am looking forward to seeing some spring bryophytes in addition to the showy wildflowers.

I would also recommend checking out the post on bees, flowers, caffeine, and memory at SciLogs. I think it is a really interesting study and those of you who love coffee and the effects of caffeine will find this study quite interesting.

Those are just a couple of highlights from the carnival. Head to In the Company of Plants and Rocks for the full carnival experience. For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: Alternation of Generations in Plants

2013-03-25T12:40:00.000-04:00

Dr. Friedman uses the analogy of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde to describe how plants have two different generations in their life cycle in this Science, Perspectives article.

Friedman, W. (2013). One Genome, Two Ontogenies Science, 339 (6123), 1045-1046 DOI: 10.1126/science.1234992

All plants have two distinct life stages/generations. The gametophyte has one set of chromosomes per cell and the sporophyte has two sets per cell. In many plants, including the bryophytes, ferns, and seed plants these generations have wildly different forms, as distinct as the personalities of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. The wild part is that the main genetic difference between the two generations is just dose. One has 1 set of chromosomes and the other has 2, but their sizes, shapes, and numbers of cells are amazingly different! Check out some examples below. (These pairs are not necessarily of the same species. I just wanted to pull together some examples for a visual.)

Moss Gametophyte

Size: Shorter than your pinky fingernail.

Moss Sporophyte
Size: As tall as your pinky finger.

Fern Gametophyte
Size: Fits on the end of your finger.

Fern Sporophyte
Size: Tips of the leaves at or below hip height.
I borrowed this photo from Emily's fern blog.

The evolution of this alternation of generations has long interested scientists. How is the difference between these two morphologies controlled? Well a piece of this puzzle has been recently figured out. Researchers report that they have discovered a gene, KNOX2, that suppresses gametophyte morphology. When this gene is turned off in a moss sporophyte the plant starts to grow but does not develop into a mature sporophyte, but instead grows into the shape of a leafy gametophyte plant. It is an elegant study and a great addition to our knowledge about the genetic control behind the transition between these two distinct generations!

Sakakibara, K., Ando, S., Yip, H., Tamada, Y., Hiwatashi, Y., Murata, T., Deguchi, H., Hasebe, M., & Bowman, J. (2013). KNOX2 Genes Regulate the Haploid-to-Diploid Morphological Transition in Land Plants Science, 339 (6123), 1067-1070 DOI: 10.1126/science.1230082

March 2013 Desktop Calendar

2013-03-07T19:33:00.001-05:00

Apologies for the delay in the March calendar. I have been busy working in the lab getting my moss cultures started! They are currently at the filamentous protonema stage and are growing nicely as you can see from the photo below.

I am not sure which species made it to the top of the pile for best photo. It is definitely a Funariaceae, but could be Entosthodon, Funaria, Physcomitrella, or Physcomitrium. It is impossible for me to tell which one at this stage of development (and I forgot to check the plate), but once they undergo reproduction their sporophyte capsules are strikingly different. They are still months away from that growth stage, so let the growing continue!

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

Berry Go Round - February 2013

2013-03-04T18:02:00.002-05:00

The newest edition of the plant carnival Berry Go Round has been posted at Foothills Fancies. There are some fun plant posts in the line up that you should definitely check out. I especially like the animated gifs of bees pollinating!

For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.

The Paradox of Cryptic Species

2013-02-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

A cryptic species is quite the paradox. If it is cryptic, how do you identify it as a species?

Well with cryptic species there is usually a hint. A tickle at the back of your brain. Maybe it is a species with wide morphological variation or a complex distribution that makes you wonder whether there are additional species hiding within.

Many cryptic species are uncovered when molecular data is used to examine the relationships between species. Members of a cryptic species may seemingly look the same, but not be each other's closest relatives. And thus the real adventure begins.

Medina, R; Lara, F; Goffinet, B; Garilleti, R; Mazimpaka, V. 2012. Integrative taxonomy successfully resolves the pseudo-cryptic complex of the disjunct epiphytic moss Orthotrichum consimile s.l. (Orthotrichaceae) Taxon 61:1180-1198.

The star of the show Orthotrichum consimile. Figure 2B from Medina et al. 2012

In this paper Dr. Rafael Medina and coauthors undertook an exploration of the moss species Orthotrichum consimile and uncovered four cryptic species hiding within. They carried out this research using the process of reciprocal illumination. They first made a detailed morphological examination of many specimens from across the range of O. consimile and detected three different morphotypes (A, B, C). Basically they were able to group the specimens into three piles based on their appearance. These observations set the stage for their molecular analyses. They then extracted DNA from representatives of each morphotype and used portions of their genetic code to build a phylogenetic tree to test the relationships between the samples. They found that the morphotypes were placed into four distinct clades (monophyletic groups). The members of A and B were each in their own clade, whereas the members of C came out in two separate clades (C1, C2). They then re-examined the specimens of group C to see if there were any features that could be used to tell them apart. After closer inspection, they found that there were a few small, but detectable differences between the specimens in C1 and C2. Thus, the morphology and molecular data were reciprocally illuminating.Based on the molecular phylogeny and the morphological differences they describe four Orthotrichum species. A more restricted Orthotrichum consimile, O. columbicum, O. confusum (this is my favorite specific epithet of the bunch!), and O persimile.

I think that this study is a great example of morphological and molecular research complementing each other to address a question of species relationships. With morphologically austere lineages (Bickford et al. 2007), such as bryophytes, the challenge of teasing apart cryptic species may seem daunting. However, this study of Orthotrichum shows that when a systematic and detailed approach is used, uncovering cryptic species is possible even in the morphologically austere mosses.

If you are interested in reading more about Dr. Medina's research or downloading a pdf of this paper check out his page on Academia.edu.

Medina, R, Lara, F, Goffinet, B, Garilleti, R, & Mazimpaka, V (2012). Integrative taxonomy successfully resolves the pseudo-cryptic complex of the disjunct epiphytic moss Orthotrichum consimile s.l. (Orthotrichaceae) Taxon, 61 (6), 1180-1198

Sequoia National Park Field Guide

2013-02-20T01:41:00.001-05:00

These are the final two videos in the series Looking Down by Lena Coleman, a graduate student at California State University Northridge.

These two are photographic field guides that teach you to identify moss and liverwort species from the Sequoia National Park. I didn't count, but I would estimate that 60 species are covered between the two videos. They are organized first by elevation and then by the substrate on which they grow. Mostly the identifications are based on features of the leafy or thalloid gametophyte, but photos of the sporophytes are also shown.

I think that it is a really nice guide and it definitely makes me want to get out and explore the bryophytes of California. However, I am not sure how I am going to take these guides out to the field with me. Does this mean that I have to break down and get a smartphone?

First Half

Second Half

Do you have a favorite species? Though Funaria hygrometrica is the species that I study for my laboratory research, I would have to say that my favorites of the bunch are the Fissidens species. Those opposite leaves that clasp around the leaf above are such a neat shape.

If there are any issues viewing the videos above they can also be watched here (first half) and here (second half).

Identification Basics for Bryophytes Video

2013-02-17T13:34:00.004-05:00

This the second video in the series Looking Down by Lena Coleman, a graduate student at California State University Northridge.

This video teaches the basics of identifying bryophytes. She walks through the different growth forms and puts them in the larger picture of land plant evolution. The transitions and graphics are really sharp. The different parts of the moss plants are covered in more detail, with zoomed in shots and definitions for the different terms. (One typo - Calyptra is spelled without an e.)

The guide is good for orientating novices who are just beginning to explore the diversity of mosses.

The video can be played by clicking on the video below or on YouTube through this link.

Mosses of Sequoia National Park

2013-02-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

This video focuses on mosses of the Sequoia National Park in California. It is the first in a series of videos made by Lena Coleman, a graduate student at California State University Northridge. The images in the video are really great and it makes me want to get out for some hiking in the woods!

The video can be played by clicking on the video below or on YouTube through this link.

The music is nice but it is not one that I recognize. Can anyone name that tune?

Want to learn the California mosses?

2013-02-05T15:30:00.000-05:00

If your answer to this question is yes, then you are in luck. There are some great resources out there to learn to identify mosses in California.

One is this book California Mosses by Bill and Nancy Malcolm, Jim Shevock, and Dan Norris. This book is amazing! It has over 300 pages of color photos and covers 176 moss genera that live in California. Identification via leaves is the main focus of this book. The idea is to pull a few leaves off of a stem, place them in a drop of water on the back of your hand, and then examine them with a magnifying lens (hand lens or loupe). There are black and white images of all the leaves that show the general outline and midrib as well as unique features such as hair points or a curved margin. These drawings are sorted at the back of the book by genus and unique features.

Another resource for moss identification in California is the California Moss eFlora. This is an online moss identification resource that includes keys to the genera and species, line drawings and photos of the taxa, and maps with species distributions.

I am new to using both of these resources, but think that they are going to be super helpful as I explore the moss flora of California. If you have any thoughts to share on these resources feel free to leave a comment.

February 2013 Desktop Calendar

2013-02-03T20:29:00.004-05:00

My California moss explorations have started close to home. This is an Orthotrichum growing on the tree in my back yard. Some of the other tufts had small sporophytes topped by plicate calyptrae (calyptrae with folds). Unfortunately they resisted my photography efforts, but this little patch without sporophytes came out well.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

January 2013 Desktop Calendar

2013-01-13T14:50:00.001-05:00

I have decided to continue with the desktop calendars for this year. Apologies for the posting delay. I moved to Davis, California at the beginning of the month and am on a quest to get some new moss images for the calendars.

Shown here is the first moss that I saw on my walk around Davis, Funaria hygrometrica. It is pretty fitting that the first moss I met was the species that I focused on for my dissertation. It is not the prettiest moss in the wild, but is super scrappy and can tolerate exposed conditions. It usually grows in open, disturbed habitats, near grills/fire pits in campgrounds or on open soil in flower beds. It has a curved capsule, twisted stalk and large calyptra that you can see on some of the unexpanded sporophytes in the background. These sporophytes are around 2.0-2.5cm tall. Each capsule can produce tens of thousands of spores and can be found around the world in temperate areas.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

December 2012 Desktop Calendar

2012-12-03T21:43:00.004-05:00

A gaggle of geese. A pandemonium of parrots. How about a mash of mosses to fill your screen this December?

After making these desktop calendars for the last year I think that it has been a fun experiment, but I am not sure if I will continue them for 2013. So, if anyone out there has actually been downloading them and would like me to continue, please drop me a message in the comments section. Otherwise I may try my hand at a different project next year.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

Gender and Academic Publishing

2012-11-26T22:17:00.001-05:00

Are female researchers well represented as authors of publications in your academic discipline? Ever wonder about the gender differences across different academic fields? A group of scientists asked that question using a data set of 1.8 million scholarly publications from 1665 to 2011 that are archived in the online digital database JSTOR.

The results of their research are not yet published, but you can check out the data using two different interactive graphics. They display the percentage of publications that have women authors, women first authors, and women last authors. They also sort the time-spans into different groups and allow you to narrow down to particular fields or sub-fields.

Basically the interactive graphics are amazing! You can check out two different versions of the graphics at the links below.

The Chronicle of Higher Education - Women as Academic Authors, 1665-2010

Gender Browser at eigenFACTOR.org - Ranking and Mapping Scientific Knowledge

And why might you ask am I talking about this study on a bryology blog? If you look under Ecology and Evolutionary Biology there are 18.5% female authors, but the subfield of Bryology is much higher than this average at 30.1%. This could be a bit of a numbers game. Bryology has many fewer authors than other more popular fields with only 571 authors included in this study, but still the percentage is quite higher. I am happy to say that a number of my publications are archived in this database and may have contributed to these higher values for the field of bryology.

If you are at all interested in female representation in academic research I would highly recommend checking out the links above. They cover a wide range of fields from biology to education to law to philosophy. Additionally, I enjoyed the news story covering the background behind the publication in this Chronicle of Higher Education article.

Overall I think that it is great documentation of the increase in the involvement of women across academic disciplines over the years. How well are women represented in your favorite specialty field?

Thanks to Dr. Tobias Landberg for sending me the link to this article!

Berry Go Round #56

2012-11-08T11:04:00.000-05:00

The newest edition of the plant carnival Berry Go Round has been posted at Seeds Aside. There are some fun plant posts in the line up that you should definitely check out.

I especially like the post about the new fern genus named for Lady Gaga! I think that it is an interesting way to get taxonomy, systematics, and ferns in the news and on the general public's radar. There is an interview with one of the researchers, Dr. Kathleen Pryer, on the Duke University website and an article in the New York Times about the research.

For more about blog carnivals and my posts about the earlier editions of Berry Go Round, click here.

November 2012 Desktop Calendar

2012-11-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

I was hiking in Hubbard Park in Meriden, CT this past weekend and came across this Polytrichum piliferum. It was growing on some rock at the top of the outcrop near Castle Craig. I thought that the calyptra looked especially fuzzy and luminous in the sunshine. Most likely these sporophytes will over-winter at this spear stage and will complete their development by forming capsules in the spring.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

Any issues or suggestions please let me know. These calendars are an experiment in-progress.

Science for Students - Matching Dollars

2012-11-02T08:21:00.000-04:00

Want to help teachers in low income communities bring great science to students?

Consider donating to the plant focused projects at the link below.

Use the match code SCIENCE when you donate and your dollars will be doubled.

Thanks!

Moss Plants Donation Page

New Moss Gardening Book

2012-10-21T11:27:00.002-04:00

A new book about moss gardening is out! The Secret Lives of Mosses: A Comprehensive Guide for Gardeners by Stephanie Stuber. The book is available in a variety of digital formats and in paperback. Stephanie recently finished her Master's degree in Public Garden Leadership at Cornell University and is now working as a Curatorial Fellow at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts.

Overall I think that is is a good book for people interested in integrating mosses into their home garden and learning more about moss biology. She covers the science, culturing, identification, curation, and interpretation of mosses. Stephanie does a nice job introducing readers to the life cycle and a variety of features that are useful for moss identification. Her habit images are vibrant and helpful, however, the photos of microscopic features are not the best quality and the details are difficult to see. The book includes descriptions of 12 common taxa with pronunciations for each genus, which is nice for folks new to moss scientific names. In the section on culturing, Stephanie highlights a variety of ecological components to think about when planting mosses, including light, moisture, and substrate, as well as more instructional topics such as transplanting, companion plants, and maintenance. The sections on curation and interpretation are more helpful for those working at a public garden rather than the at-home gardener, but it is a nice glimpse behind the scenes of a working botanical garden.

It is apparent that Stephanie is well read and knowledgeable about mosses, but I wish that the text would have included more citations to point the reader to the books she read to gain this expertise. She does cite a study that "...documented that beds of moss over soil provide favorable condition(s) for tree growth in the forest and that the removal of them adversely affects the succession of trees (Thieret 1956)." My general knowledge also is that mosses can serve as a moist nursery for seed germination, but having a scientific study that actually demonstrates and supports this idea is even better. I had not heard of Thieret before and will definitely check out his paper to see the details of the study.

A word of caution, the digital editions of this book are reader program specific. I bought a PDF of the book and missed the note that it will only open in the program Adobe Digital Editions. This file will not open in either Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Professional. I know that digital formats for books are becoming more and more common, but I am suspect of the longevity of files that only open in one specialized program. I plan on studying mosses for a long time and I would like to be able to read and refer to Stephanie's book for the next 50 years. I am pretty sure that computers will continue to be able to access regular PDF files, but will this specific Adobe Digital Edition program still be around so that I can open up this program-specific file? I would have really liked the option to purchase a regular PDF so that the longevity of my access would be more likely. Maybe I will just buy the paperbook version too. I am pretty sure I will still be able to open and read a hard copy years into the future.

DonorsChoose Science Blogger Challenge

2012-10-17T21:58:00.000-04:00

This is my first year competing in the Science Blogger Challenge. The challenge: Compete against other science bloggers to raise money for science supplies for students.

At DonorsChoose.org, teachers request donations for supplies to implement a particular project in their classroom. Then people like you or I make donations of a little or a lot to fund their supplies and make the project happen. Crowd-sourcing in action!

There are hundreds of great projects to choose from on the site. I am especially excited about the projects that use plants! They range from science experiments that examine plant pigments to starting a garden to make basic observations about how plants grow. I think that plants are a great way to get students excited and interested in science. Botanical education is lacking in many schools and most people think of plants as only the green background where animals live. Instead of knowing that they are unique, diverse, and dynamic organisms in their own right. Connecting students to the natural world through plants is a great way to increase their thinking about and hopefully care for our planet.

To this end, I have setup a page with a list of projects that Moss Plants and More is sponsoring. Check out the projects on the page and if you find one that resonates with you make a donation! I started the ball rolling with a small donation to each project on my page. Even if you don't make a donation please spread the word via your favorite technology or social media. The contest runs now through Nov 5th. The website for my page is http://www.donorschoose.org/moss-plants-science-donation-page

My fellow Field of Science Bloggers, we are currently in 8th place. I bet that we can move up in the ranking and raise some money to put awesome science projects into classrooms! Anyone else interested in joining in?

Moss Plants Donation Page

October 2012 Desktop Calendar

2012-10-01T22:04:00.000-04:00

The calendar for October is a blend of several different moss species occupying the crevice in a stone. The one in the center is Bryum argenteum, the silver sidewalk moss. As the common name suggests, this moss is regularly found growing in urban areas in between sidewalk tiles.

I think that the color is really great, but now that I think of it I am not sure how it produces that color. Deposits in the cell walls? Papillae? Are they covered in hairs? Many questions with no answers. Maybe if I have time tomorrow I will look it up. Otherwise it is some great plant beauty to appreciate even without the scientific explanation.

1 - Single click on the image to open it up in a new window. (If you use the image directly from the blog post you will lose a lot of resolution.)

2 - Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the image, and chose the option that says, "Set as Desktop Background" or "Use as Desktop Picture". The wording may vary.

Any issues or suggestions please let me know. These calendars are an experiment in-progress.