I don't seem to have posted this yet - maybe I was waiting to figure out where to put it. They are from the beginning of December. I got all excited about this green trunk, on an Acer macrophyllum street tree a few blocks from me. I think there might be two mosses here, one being similar to a feather moss and the other a leafy moss. I have hardly ever given mosses the time of day, but there it was at eye level with the sun shining on it. I had no excuse to not give it some attention.
Does the leafy moss look similar to the Baby Tooth Moss (Plagiomnium cuspidatum) on this flickr page? Baby Tooth Moss (Plagiomnium cuspidatum) 07-28-2014 Jug Ba… | Flickr Eflora-BC says it's native here but has no photo. E-Flora BC Atlas Page (ubc.ca)
@wcutler, Photo no4 does have all the appearance of Baby Tooth Moss. And with the evidence that it is native to the area, it looks a very good bet Wendy. Regarding you saying not giving moss much thought, I do hope that Daniel @Daniel Mosquin might consider a forum for Moss and ferns as suggested by N @Nik . Just think of the amount of threads and postings from new members as well as old. To have them all in one forum would make ID and reference so much easier
What did I say - two mosses? I've looked a few more times, think there might be six or seven or eight. I might even have ignored some. I've just given then numbers for now and have marked the numbers on the photos. Moss 1: the most prominent one that I think looks like a feather moss. Moss 2: the long flat leafed one, ID'd above as Baby Tooth Moss, Plagiomnium cuspidatum Moss 3: round flat leaves Moss 4: long flat leaves sort of orange in colour, more upright than Moss 2 Moss 5: in photos, looks like a wet Moss 1, but there, it looked nothing like it - was larger, darker, fuller leaf surface Moss 6: tiny flat leaves growing over the root of the maple; first photo is not cropped and has no numbers Moss 7: I don't know; I was losing interest. Is this different from Moss 1? Moss 8: There are these round things that look like they might just be Moss 1 that have been cut off.
@ConnorWardrop did a presentation on mosses to a Nature Vancouver meeting last November. A month later, when I got up the nerve to write to him, he was generous enough to look at my posting and send me some IDs, which he said I could copy and paste in here. Now it's taken me this long to do the posting, but here it is. ----------------------------- - The main moss on your maple tree is Homalothecium fulgescens, which is often the dominant moss on mature deciduous trunks in Vancouver. It is also often found with or nearby its relative, Homalothecium nuttalii, which is a similar much finer and sleeker moss. Both are quite beautiful and often form very impressive golden-green colonies covering a side of a trunk. This time of year, both these Homalotheciums should also be producing sporophytes like in your first photos :) - The leafy moss you were referring to as Plagiomnium cuspidatum is close!! P. cuspidatum is a rather terrestrial species, and here along the coast is not frequent compared to others in the genus. When you see a Plagiomnium growing in other mosses on trunks (especially Maples) up off the ground, it's almost always going to be P. venustum, a PNW endemic species. Apart from habitat, it is also visually distinct from the others in the genus, and forms those nice rosettes. - In your first set of photos, there is another moss with obvious leaves that are rounded at the end. This is Syntrichia latifolia. Big fan of this one, I think it's so cute! It generally grows a bit drier than the other species on this trunk - not so much that this co-occurrence is unusual, just something to note. It's really common along W Broadway :) - In your second set of photos, you also have the moss Neckera menziesii, which is the one you have circled in a few photos. In forests with mature bigleaf maples, this one often replaces H. fulgescens in its dominance of the trunk. - In your second set of photos, the one growing over the roots in Scleropodium cespitans. This one generally grows around roots, on soil or on/around rock, and only creeps up the bases of urban tree trunks. - The very last photo is a nice one of H. fulgescens. These were the mosses I could make out in enough detail to tell you for sure what they are, but there may be a couple shoots of others mixed in. There should be fairly accessible photos online for all of the species I mentioned above, at least on inaturalist. I'm happy to hear that you're getting curious about the moss-world, I hope this info helps! Happy mossin' Connor
