Mosses have colonized the earth for more than 350 million years. The green land plants can confidently do without roots and will multiply in the generational change. Laubmoos represents the largest clan with more than 15,000 species. This fact sheet conveys what particularly characterizes the prehistoric plants.

Leaf moss is a category of the three major moss groups

System and appearance at a glance

Researchers have been dealing with bryology, the science of mosses, since the 18th century. To this day, new, fascinating details about the tiny plants are still being discovered, reducing their disdainful classification as weeds ad absurdum. The following profile gives interesting facts about leaf moss:

  • Leaf moss (Bryophyta) as the largest group within the moss plant department
  • More than 15,000 known species with worldwide distribution
  • Growth on earth (terrestrial), on trees (epiphytic) and on rocks (lithophytic)
  • Growth heights from 1 mm to 20 cm with leafy stems
  • Growth habit stiffly upright, cushion-forming (acrocarp) or branched, lawn-forming (pleurocarp)
  • Rootless anchoring in the subsoil via unicellular strands, without parasitic function
  • Uptake of nutrients and water from rain
  • Propagation by alternation of generations between sexual and asexual

Only the peat moss subgenus, from which plant substrates emerge, or sphagnum for the cultivation of orchids, is of economic importance.

Brilliant Survival Strategies - That's why combating them is so tricky

Due to the lack of roots, leaf moss is uncompetitive. It therefore specifically looks for locations that are not colonized by other plants or where they are weak. Thus, the green moss coverings appear in places that we do not like at all, such as on paved paths, walls, terraces or on the lawn. Combating it is so problematic because leaf moss has developed these survival strategies over millions of years:

  • The smallest amounts of rain cover the need for water and nutrients
  • Dried moss can withstand heat up to 110 degrees and cold down to - 196 degrees Celsius
  • In many species, photosynthesis is still possible at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius

These and other abilities allow leaf moss and other mosses to sprout again, even after years of dormancy, suppression and control.

tips

Scientists have suspected it for 200 years - but the proof could not be provided until 2000. Among the liverworts is Colura, a tropical genus whose 20 species are miniature carnivorous plants. The 1 mm small leaves act as a catching device for ciliates. After a short time, the protozoa die off and are processed by the moss tissue.

Category:

Vegetable garden