Indoor Gardening with Moss | Eugene Daily News

Indoor Gardening with Moss | Eugene Daily News

Have you ever walked the many trails and parks in Lane County, particularly during the rainy season and noticed moss covered trees, branches and rocks? In a natural setting moss looks quite beautiful. Draped on tree branches it sets a tone of an ancient, almost medieval quality. Along streams and waterfalls, moss creates plush green cushions that accent the water features.

This picturesque scene may be reproduced indoors using sealed containers known as terrariums or in open dish containers with relatively little effort.

What is moss? True moss are bryophytes, meaning they have no vascular system or veins to transport nutrients or water.They have no roots to draw nutrients, nor do they flower or seed. Instead, mosses draw nutrients directly through their leaves in a hair-like structure called a rhizoid. Rhizoids adhere to a plants surface. Moss colonies often consists of hundreds of tiny plants growing tightly together to form a dense mat. Since moss takes nutrients from the leaves and not the roots, it can grow on living trees without being parasitic or interfering with the trees growth.

A cool web site about Marchantia

The Marchantia Exchange
This site provides a forum for scientific exchange about the liverwort species Marchantia polymorpha, with a library of relevant PDFs and links to interested laboratories. It is for use by scientists, students and naturalists.

IAB New treasurer

We wish to announce that Matt von Konrat has been appointed, by the President and the Executive Committee, as the new treasurer of IAB.

Matt replaces James Shevock who recently stood down from the position. We wish to take this opportunity to thank James for his outstanding contributions and efforts as treasurer over the last couple of years.

New contact details for the treasurer are:
Matt von Konrat,
1400 South Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago, Illinois 60605, U.S.A.
Phone: (312) 665-7864
Email

Jeffrey C. Duckett, President of IAB
Matt von Konrat, new Treasurer of IAB