Moss ID

["James Purchase" <jppurchase at rogers_com>]

Stan Wiatr is looking to ID a moss he found growing in cold running water in
Montana. From the description he gives, it sounds like a species of
Fontinalis, but an exact ID might need a bit of work.

Paul Krombholz has suggested a Bryologist he knows - if he can't help, you
could check with the International Association of Bryologists
(http://www.devonian.ualberta.ca/iab/about.html). They have a directory of
members by region, so you might find an expert in your own backyard.

The Missouri Botanical Garden does a lot of research on Bryophytes - check
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/tropicos/most/bryolist.shtml . Another online
resource is "Bryophytes" from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
http://bryophytes.plant.siu.edu/ .

Or, you could try to ID the moss yourself. The library in your University
probably has a copy of the Mosses of Eastern North America by H.A. Crum.
This is widely considered the "Bible" for mosses. With the book and a low
power microscope, you should have no trouble keying out the moss. I don't
think you need worry about the book's coverage being "Eastern North
America", as many species have very wide distribution. Try to obtain a
sample of moss which shows the different generations - many species are only
keyable using features of the spore capsule.

Another good book on mosses is Mosses and Other Bryophytes : An Illustrated
Glossary by Malcom, Malcom & Malcom. Wonderful photos but probably useless
to ID a North American moss, as all the examples are from New Zealand.

James Purchase
Toronto