#bryophytes

[image credit]

That's right - it's glacier mice. One of my favorite things maybe on the entire planet. Let's talk about these freaky fuzzy little rats!!

Glacier mice are balls of moss that live in large herds like this in a few select glaciers. They are moss all the way through, with a center consisting of dead moss matter, implying that they begin as small growths of moss and simply accumulate over time, like snowballs. However, their outside surface is alive and well on all sides. Glacier mice have been observed, through tagging and tracking, to roll across the glacier like a majestic herd of wildebeest, exposing all of their sides to the sunlight. They trundle along at a pace of about 2.5 cm per day. That's 30 feet in a year! They're really schmovin'! Certainly further than most mosses can claim to travel.

What's really exciting, though, is that they all move in the same direction, and we're not sure why or how. Scientists experimented to try and attribute their coordinated behavior to wind, sunlight, and the direction that their grazing ground slopes, but to no avail. They speed up, slow down, and change direction in unison, based on some mysterious moss code that we haven't cracked yet.

Cross-section of a glacier mouse. Note the dead moss matter inside, and the short gametophytes on the outside, adapted to harsh winds and sunlight. [image credit]

We have figured out how they roll, though - while the moss ball sits on the ice, it insulates the ice directly underneath it, protecting it from melting. This forms a little pillar of ice that the moss eventually rolls off of. The insulating power of glacier mice also gives it the wonderful ability to host all kinds of microorganisms that otherwise wouldn't survive the glacier's harsh conditions, and their ability to move makes it possible for microorganisms to spread from one habitable spot to another. They're like a bunch of little tardigrade passenger ships, braving the dangerous glacier to go where no water bear has gone before!!

Glacier mice have been found to consist of several moss species, most of which must reproduce asexually in order to survive in the dry climate. They've been observed to live for at least six years, but are projected to live much, much longer. I love them. So much. I hope they know that I love them!! I LOVE THEM!!!!

NOOOOO

Firstly, this picture is MOSS. Actual moss-moss. NOT lichen. It is moss In Iceland, so it is Icelandic moss generally, NOT Iceland Moss (common name) specifically, which is, yes, a lichen--Cetraria iselandica. (This is why common names suck so hard)

Cetraria islandica looks like this:

Olive to brown, glossy, leathery, grows with moss, is not moss. Moss and lichen are different things.

Secondly, C. iselandica is a symbiosis between a fungus and a green algae, NOT cyanobacteria. Don't even know where they got that from.

Thirdly, while there is a lot of lichen in Iceland, when you look across the moss fields (the ones I know they are referring to), you are indeed seeing mostly moss.

That's moss, baby! Along with smatterings of vascular plants and lichens, but majority Racomitrium moss!

Also did you know that moss isn't just moss? There are at least 460 species of moss in Iceland, along with nearly 200 species of other terrestrial non-vascular plants! They don't get nearly enough respect, and saying that the moss isn't even moss is like, so bizarre and misinformed? A great example of how little even folks who should be capable of doing the bare minimum of fact checking are relying too much on false sources of info

I've been seeking out a delicate little lichen called Arctomia - it has beautiful deep red apothecia and is one of the many denizens of lush mini-jungles that form in the canopy of liverwort mats on tree trunks in danker woodlands in these parts.

The Life of the Forest: Bryophytes 

Bryophytes, i.e. three systematic groups, are extremely diverse in terms of form and shape.

They can be found in every ecosystem on Earth, including Poland. They are an indispensable component of Polish forests and other ecosystems.

In addition to accumulating greenhouse gases and water, they also have the very important function of delaying water runoff in the larger landscape system – the hydrological system in which they are located.

Despite their small size and the fact that we often pay attention to larger plants – colourful perennials, bushes with tasty fruits, impressive trees – let us not forget about bryophytes when hiking in the woods. It is worth going down to the stream valley, bending over a stone, a rock, the trunk of a dead tree...

And to look at and try to understand this rich and diverse world of forms and shapes of the bryophytes.