moss identity

[Indiana Gardener]

My best friend who lives in south GA has had this wild moss for decades. It's from her swamp and she's had it on the surface of her fish tank ever since she first brought it indoors. She thought it was sphagnum, but I thought sphagnum was more branched, or maybe it's because it's growing in water and not on peat? Does anyone know what moss it is?

Also, sphagnum doesn't tolerate fish waste in an enclosed environment does it, RO/distilled water? Maybe I'm wrong?
Thanks!

 

[w03]

Maybe water moss (Fontinalis)?

 

[Lil Stinkpot]

Send a sample, and I'll do my dangedest to ID it!

 

[Indiana Gardener]

Thanks. I'll send a little piece when I get some.

 

[Lil Stinkpot]

It's really floating, isn't it?

 

[Indiana Gardener]

Yup, for real. She said it makes a floating mat about 4" thick and multiplies so fast that she has to thin it out every yr and just throws it out in the yard. :-( I said, next time, thin it my way. LOL She said that it moves like a peat swamp if you press on it with your fingers. It grows taller and less carpet-like if it grows out of the water on a piece of wood or damp soil. Seems like it may work for growing cp's that prefer live medium? Maybe an easier alternative to live sphagnum?

 

[seedjar]

I guess it could be some very fine species of Sphagnum, but I suspect it's really from some other genus. It's hard to tell - can you get a macro shot of it by chance?
~Joe

 

[Indiana Gardener]

I can when I get some of it. Right now, it's 700 mi away. I'll post more pics when my portion arrives.

As kind of a related side note; does anyone know if D. capensis would tolerate growing on/in such a floating mat in a tank with guppies, or would the fish waste and degree of moisture be too much for it? The mat floating ratio is 1/2" above water, 3 1/2" below.

 

[SDCPs]

My guess would be that it would be to wet for it. Rot you know.

 

[Indiana Gardener]

That was my first thought, but I had to ask. Maybe in a terrarium with it since the moss will grow out of water as well?

 

[Lil Stinkpot]

Try D. rotundifolia. I have one dormant now, floating ont top of the water, supported by other plants.

 

[Indiana Gardener]

I used to have some of those in my outdoor lined bog yrs back. That's great that a dormant one is doing ok in such damp conditions. I'll have to try that. Thanks!


David

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

grow a team of burmanni =] this past summer i scattered a bunch of burmanni seeds out on this huge moss flat in my yard outside my room and i forgot about them. i remembered last week and i went to look for some. found HUNDREDS of plants! full seed pods and flowers. even though we have had frosts back home before. harvested what i had time for. they will all die off this winter so maybe ill watch it closer this time.

Alex

 

[seedjar]

D. prolifera could do it, no problem. (Provided the moss doesn't have a disagreeable pH or other counterindicated conditions.) If the moss tolerates it, you could probably do some interesting experiments growing Sarracenia seedlings on it with the 24-hour lighting method. I can see VFT seedlings working on it as well, with periodic transplanting as per the dormancy-skipping technique for Dionaea.
For a time I grew D. prolifera on a mat of U. gibba in the bottom of my lowland Nep terrarium. I separated them when I cleaned the tank out but once the gibba starts to get thick again I'm sure the prolifera will throw some starts onto it. D. prolifera will grow on top of clean water, until it gets too heavy and the crown gets submerged - they don't like that so much.
~Joe