The year of moss: day 1

Kia ora koutou,

I’ve decided to start a little project which I’m calling “the year of moss”. Every day, for 365 days, I will be making a little post about a species of moss found in Aotearoa. It might be a species I saw that day. It might be a species I saw a few days before. It might just be a random draw from the NZ moss flora. Each day, I’ll post a little bit of info about the species and what makes it interesting. For a bit of amusement, I’ll also give each species a “rating” on cuteness, distinctiveness, and overall “Liadan’s moss rating”, or LMR for short.

I’ll start us off with Leptostomum macrocarpum. This species is widespread around Aotearoa, occurring from the far north all the way down to Fiordland. It grows in damp forests, usually on the bark of trees. Despite being distinctive and widespread, I saw L. macrocarpum for the first time just last week at the John Child bryophytes workshop in Whangārei. I guess I spend too much time in the forests east of Arthur’s Pass, which are mostly too dry for this species. L. macrocarpum has several distinctive features that set it apart from any other mosses in Aotearoa, including a branched hairpoint on the leaves and a distinctive capsule shape. Its capsule shape is, I think, best described as an elongated potato. The capsules are lumpy things that are widest at the base and narrow a little towards the tip. When capsules are present, they usually occur in a dense weft, which is presumably how this species got its common name “pincushion moss”.
Cuteness: 8/10
Distinctiveness: 10/10
LMR: 8/10
Here’s an observation of this species from last week’s workshop: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/246881079

Posted on October 16, 2024 08:10 PM by fuligogirl