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What kind of moss is this?

It doesnt look like typical sphagnum moss to me. It has leaves that arent holding a visible amount of water and has short stems. Ive seen pictures online where entire pots are filled with this. So is it a strange species of sphagnum or some kind of weed moss?

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After looking through hundreds of pictures ive come to the conclusion that this is some kind of star moss. Looks like im going to have to kill it :'(
Anyways thanks for the help I would have gotten. :lol:
 
Sorry for such a late reply,but heres my thoughts.I think its just new growth of the sphagnum,cause ive had it grow into the larger pieces,and Ive had it with my plants for a few years and never had any problems with it or any of the plants it was growing with.
 
I think that it is some sort of star moss, im sure that it is not sphag. It will not hurt you plants though. :)
 
I have that in almost all my pots. It is completely harmless and looks nice, so I would not kill it...
 
I'm afraid I will have to disagree, though it depends on what kinds of plants are meant to be in the pot. Star moss grows extremely quickly nad can actually choke out smaller CPs like sundews, bladderworts, and such, and will end up looking quite horrible as the spore stalks stick up and end up being the only thing left of the plant, a bunch of ugly green sticks (spoken from experience). With larger plants like Sarracenia and Nepenthes, no, star moss is not a problem, but it can easily spread to pots with smaller plants if any are nearby.
 
I have to disagree.
My small Utricularia do fine with star moss in the pot. You just cannot see the many of the stolons. You can still see the flowers.
It has not been a problem for my Drosera, Drosera seedlings or even Nepenthes seedlings...
 
I hate the stuff... I have it in many of my pots but would much prefer a nice thick layer of sphagnum. I'm constantly trimming it back and it also forms a thick mat which can uproot small plants if you're not careful in removing it. It also pulls a lot of the media with it.
 
yeah, i hate it too. it also can form a water barrier if it grows to thick.

if i'm feeling particularly obsessive, i'll get tweezers out and pull individual fibers out of the sphagnum. the best way to get rid of it is to get a nice culture of starmoss-free sphagnum and replace all the infested stuff.
 
  • #10
I have this in all my pots. (Ceph, heli, nep, utri etc) its 100% harmless and look nice :)

Even a pot full of only that moss can be nice.
 
  • #11
I have to agree with hcarlton. It is extremely vigorous in my collection's summery conditions and chokes out Drosera strikes and sprouts in a week or two. I also have it in a pot of U. bisquamata, and like bananaman has mentioned, you can hardly see the leafy stolens. I have to disagree with bananaman in that if I can't see the Utric very well then the sun "can't see it very well" either. I did have some in a larger venusta pot that I trimmed twice a month and it looked pretty cool, but the venusta didn't seem to appreciate it trying to grow up through the leaves and around the crown. An air-flow/gas exchange thing I guess.
 
  • #12
That's a new growth of Sphagnum. Don't kill it!!!!!!! I have some popping up in my P. primuliflora pot and I'll admit it doesn't look much like Sphagnum until it matures.
 
  • #13
That is NOT sphagnum. New growth of Sphagnum looks completely different. It is some kind of other moss, I have it in my Nepenthes pots by chance. It does come up from dead Sphag, but it isn't Sphagnum.

If you want to grow Sphagnum from nothing, I would recommend putting it in a sealed bag for a couple months. I'm not sure how NZ LFS grows back from the dead, but I know the Mosser Lee stuff does come back since it is "natural" (AKA not washed/bleached).

If you look closely at that, it doesn't even have the same structure as Sphagnum. That has flat-ish little "leaves" and comes to a tiny dip in the center. It will stay around that size and maybe get a bit bigger. If you don't like the look of it, throw it out, because it will spread. It isn't really a pest though.
 
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