Most Common Moss

Description

• The plants of fire moss form small, reddish-green mats or tufts that grow from 1- to 2.5-centimeters high. The stems do not branch. The sharply pointed lance-shaped leaves run .7 to 3 millimeters long. The leaves spread when moist and contort when dry. The edges of the leaves bend backward and are smooth except for a few notches near the tip. Deeply furrowed, dark reddish-purple capsules distinguish this plant from other species.

Habitat

• Though fire moss can be found worldwide, in the United States, you will most commonly found it on rooftops, sandy soils along roadsides, compacted soils in disturbed areas (such as those that have seen natural disaster) and in undisturbed sites on soil that is exposed due to upturned trees or rotting logs.

Sporophytes

• Sporophytes (the foot, stalk and capsule) grow from the female sex organs, or usually at the tip of the plants. These grow smooth and greenish when young, and become horizontal, eight-ribbed, and reddish-brown to purplish when mature. Each year this moss produces a new dense crop of sporophytes.

Survival

• Fire moss is adaptable, stress-tolerant and somewhat resistant to pollution. This enables it to live in as many diverse settings as the people who inhabit the earth. In many urban environments, such as window ledges or pavements, the arid conditions cause moss to dry out quickly. To defend against this, the moss shoots pack closely together so the limited moisture can be shared among the shoots. Moss expert Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of "Gathering Moss," writes that fire moss "makes such dense colonies that, when dry, they resemble small bricks; when wet, green velvet."