Moss

Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm (0.4–4 in) tall, though some species are much larger, like Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world which can grow to 50 cm in height. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems. At certain times mosses produce spore capsules which may appear as beak-like capsules borne aloft on thin stalks.

There are approximately 12,000 species of moss classified in the Bryophyta. The division Bryophyta formerly included not only mosses, but also liverworts and hornworts. These other two groups of bryophytes now are often placed in their own divisions.

Read more about Moss:  Classification, Geological History, Habitat, Cultivation, Traditional Uses, Commercial Use

Famous quotes containing the word moss:

    The true doctrine of omnipresence is, that God reappears with all his parts in every moss and cobweb.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    We talked between the Rooms—
    Until the Moss had reached our lips—
    And covered up—our names—
    Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

    They are very proper forest houses, the stems of the trees collected together and piled up around a man to keep out wind and rain,—made of living green logs, hanging with moss and lichen, and with the curls and fringes of the yellow birch bark, and dripping with resin, fresh and moist, and redolent of swampy odors, with that sort of vigor and perennialness even about them that toadstools suggest.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)