Funaria hygrometrica

I finally submitted my tax return today so feel relieved to have passed that annual hurdle at the beginning of each year. I always regret that I didn't do it earlier, but I don't think I am alone in this.

My friend John W. rang early this morning to pick my brain (slim pickings there, I'd say) so we arranged for him to come round mid-morning for coffee and chat. The sun was shining when John arrived, although the wind was very strong. He went outside onto the patio while I prepared a drink John, to have a smoke in the sunshine.

When I brought the coffee, he commented about the fine specimen of moss growing on the soil of one of my plant pots and took me out to have a close look at it . He has great knowledge of botany and loves to take close-up detailed pictures, particularly using his microscopes, from which he often produces stereoscopic or 3d digital images. We then talked about lenses, since he knows so much about optics, and I got advice on using my extension tubes to increase magnification.

So when he had gone, I took the opportunity of trying out a 20mm extension tube with my 35mm lens to photograph the Furnaria hygrometrica which he had shown to me. It is one of the commonest water type mosses which grows on moist, shady, and damp soil. It can also be found on moist walls and the crevices of rocks and places where recent fires have taken place, such as bonfires. Apparently it thrives on bare and disturbed soil which is high in nitrogen.

The plant body is green, soft, and upright. The rhizoids present in this species are multi-cellular and branched. They have oblique septa. The main axis of the plant, which is upright, bears a set of spirally arranged, sessile leaves having a clearly distinguishable midrib ....... from Wiki

The little green head in focus at the bottom right of the picture is, I think, the sporophyte, the generation in the life cycle of the plant that produces spores. Each head is actually only 2mm in length and the plant rises to about 2 to 3 cms in height. John said that each of these contain about 5 million spores in each head! No wonder it is so successful.

The brown shape in focus at the top left is an old dead head, whose spores have probably already been distributed through the interesting geometric shapes at the bottom (you can see more clearly if you go larger). When Woodpeckers came home from work she thought I was blipping alfalfa shots. Now that is a good idea, eating sprouted seeds, as well as getting a blip at the same time, and without leaving the house!