re: moss links

[Stephan Mifsud <valerandi at yahoo_com>]

James Purchase said: “http://iopets.com/en/WP-009.htm
has a photo labelled Fontinalis
antipyretica (#WM118). Take a close look at the photo
- is it just my eyes,
or does it look like "Christmas Moss"??? It certainly
doesn't look like
anything I've seen ID'd as Fontinalis antipyretica. Or
does Fontinalis
exhibit a variety of growth habits/forms?”

F.antipyretica, like most species with a wide
geographical distribution (including ourselves), has a
number of forms including var. antipyretica,  var.
gracilis, var. gigantea, var. oregonensis, var.
montana, var. cymbifolia, var. robusta, var. laxa.,
var. mollis, var. patula, etc… but none of the
descriptions I found describe a plumose (feathery)
shape like the one shown in the photo. I think you are
right: The plant in the photo does look like
‘Christmas moss’ and that certainly is not Fontinalis!


I have the following suspicions:
1) 	What most of us know as ‘Christmas moss’ is in the
trade being sold as ‘South American Willow Moss’. 
Tomoko Schum sent me a picture of the latter (a scan
of her book) and it looks exactly like Christmas moss.
Thanks Tomoko.  I would have liked to look at it under
the scope to confirm.
2) 	Someone saw ‘Willow Moss’ in the name and so just
used ‘Fontinalis antipyretica’ as a scientific name!
(That’s confusing confusion)


Here is what a   Vesicularia cuspidata   looks like
under the microscope:
http://research.kahaku.go.jp/botany/koke/Vesicularia%20cuspidata.gif
 V dubjana, and ‘Christmas moss’ look very similar.
There are a number of other Japanese Vesicularia
listed here.

http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/jrputzkebr/bryophytaspecies.html
lists the following Vesicularia from The Rio Grande
del Sul (Brazil):
Vesicularia orbicifolia C. Muell. 
Vesicularia perpinnata  (Broth.) Broth. 
Vesicularia vesicularis  (Schwaegr.)

No habitat is listed however.

I have’nt got Kasselmann. What does the moss and
liverwort section look like?

Regards Stephan


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com