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Old 18-07-2003, 10:15 AM
Roger Van Loon
 
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Default Can you identify this (semi) aquatic moss?

Mike Noren wrote:

The moss on this picture...

http://hem.bredband.net/micnor/Akvat...m_DSCN4658.jpg

...is growing, very rapidly too, in one of my aquaria. The longest
stems on that image are about 3cm.

I found the moss at a depth of about 10 cm in a nearby lake.

I've seen this moss in shallow waters around here (Stockholm) many
times, but've never managed to identify it. It looks like a leafy
livermoss, but it's definitely not Fontinalis antipyretica (which is a
much, much, bigger and coarser plant - I found it at the same site I
found this moss).

When it's growing fast, which it is most of the time, it produces
little oxygen bubbles, much like Riccia fluitans does, but it's
definitely not Riccia fluitans either.

To me the moss looks _a lot_ like Java moss, Vesicularia dubyana, but
is less branched - and of course there shouldn't be any Java moss
growing in Swedish lakes.

So - does anyone recognize this moss?

I realize the image isn't too hot - if it's too poor to tell what it
is, I can try to get a better image.



Hi Mike
Well, I don't think I have ever seen that plant, the only water moss I
ever found over here (Belgium) is Fontinalis antipyretica. But I seem
to remember there is another Fontinalis species in Europe that is more
slender than F. antipyretica.
Frances Perry in her book "Water Gardening" even speaks of two (after
F. antipyretica):
"""
Fontinalis capillacea is very much daintier in appearance, with fine
fragments of brownish-green foliage. It is found in alpine rivulets,
so should thrive in really cold water...
Fontinalis gracilis has lax, dark green masses of of stems and foliage
wich flow like tresses of hair with the movement of the water. Europe.
"""
Could it be one of those? Google didn't find any pictures.
Otherwise, there's an interesting site avbout water mosses in Wales:
http://home.clara.net/adhale/bryos/rivers.htm
Best of luck.
Regards,
Roiger.

--
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