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I Went into Nature - Are These Both Moss?

I went to Linn Run State Park in Pennsylvania to peep the purple pitcher plants. I found a whole lot of these two things growing. One is a lot prettier than the other. I'm fairly certain the second one is sphagnum moss.

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I'd like to grow some of whatever the top one is.
 
The second one is definitely sphagnum, no idea what species the first is though lol.
 
how were the pictchers? do you have pictures? And ill have to go soon. it's about an hour away from me
 
The second appears to be Sphagnum. The first looks similar to some I had growing in my pot of Dionaea 'Akai Ryu'. Nasty stuff as it grows in to a dense thick mat like compressed felt.

You might try a tentative ID by browsing through these sites:
http://www.ualberta.ca/~mjs14/bryopics/index.htm
http://worldofmosses.com/

Note: collecting plants, animals, soil or minerals from PA State Parks is not allowed in case anyone is thinking on those lines. You might be able to get a permit.
 
how were the pictchers? do you have pictures? And ill have to go soon. it's about an hour away from me

They were nice. Some articles online mentioned sundews in the bog, but I didn't see any. Maybe it's too late in the season? Who knows.

Here are some of my pictures. Pardon the blur. It was raining and I was cold, so I couldn't hold still that well. I also accidentally changed the setting on my camera to be better for pictures of comets and not foliage for some....

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Does anyone know what the heck that is?
 
That last picture looks like the flower bud of a cactus. No idea what it's doing there, but it doesn't appear to be any native flora.
 
That last picture looks like the flower bud of a cactus. No idea what it's doing there, but it doesn't appear to be any native flora.

There were three or four of them along a 20' stretch of path. Stuck out like a sore thumb with how bright they were. That's interesting if it's really from a cactus....
 
first one is a polytrichum sp.

Not sure which one, but there are three that are kind of common..they are becoming more popular in the CP hobby, Common name is Haircap moss... it is slightly acidic and prefers less light than sphag

I have a couple species of it in cultivation. (trial basis, very limited)

Av
 
  • #10
You can buy it online and on ebay... just search for haircap moss on ebay, or polytrichum using google.
I know there are at least two vendors.. one educational based and one gardening based

I know of one reference that says not to use it with drosera... but it is becoming more popular with neps and helis both as a top dressing and as a substrate component.

Av
 
  • #11
I wasn't even thinking of using it with my CPs, just growing it on its own because I like how it looks. I do have one nep, though. Maybe it'd like some haircap moss.
 
  • #12
This belongs to a good friend of mine... he's the one that got me interested in its possible use

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I've also seen a picture from A. Wistuba where he used it in a simular application.

Its very pretty,
Av
 
  • #13
Does it contribute to the health of CPs at all, or does it just make it more pleasing to the eye?
 
  • #14
it supposedly does decently as a substrate component, but I don't have any first hand knowledge
as far as I know, its use is mainly cosmetic at this point.
 
  • #15
Seems like a beautiful and serene place. :) I really gotta see CPs in the wild. >_>
 
  • #16
wow! i will need to go
 
  • #17
Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures of the bog.
 
  • #18
polytrichum is a beautiful genus of mosses. Although..looking at one, it is very very very hard to recognize them directly. Most mosses cannot be recognized without looking at its cell structure and most importantly its spore capsule. Either way...I do have polytrichum from different sources and one of the most common ones is polytrichum commune. The moss grows differently depending on the amount of light it gets. Most mosses in general grow in bright shade and I would assume polytrichum likes the same. It generally acts as a scaffolding moss for sphagnum when peat bogs are restored. On a layer of fresh peat...generally when spores and chopped up sphagnum from virgin bogs are scattered, polytrichum is the first to come up. Sphagnum uses this now support moss and the extra humidity to slowly gain control. The polytrichum does tend to hang on in few places, but most times sphagnum just overruns the polytrichum profusely.
Polytrichum so in general is just like sphagnum..it doesn't harm your plants and can be grown for the top dressing. However, it is notorious for suffocating seedlings and smaller plants. It should be avoided for plants like pygmy sundews and short rosetted dews in general. However, for plants like neps, it is perhaps among the most beautiful ground cover that you can encourage. THe moss is also different in the sense that its a very stringy moss...it doesn't compact like sphagnum and has a lot of air packets in it. This makes it ideal for nep media mixes as well. ALthough, from experience, I have found that it tends to be extra open forcing you to water the plant a lot more regularly than other mixes.
 
  • #19
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Does anyone know what the heck that is?

There are temperate cactus species native to the northeast, believe it or not! Check out Opuntia humifusa... I think there are others, as well. They're not something I'm extremely familiar with, but I thought it was neat that cacti don't just live in the desert!
 
  • #20
Look what popped up in my planter today. I'm debating moving it to a place with less light, out of my planter with sarrs and liverworts and other moss.

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It looks like the tips are browning. That's why I might move it to a shadier spot, but I'm afraid. I don't want this to die.
 
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